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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
The Politics of Place: Montesquieu, Particularism, and the Pursuit of Liberty

The Politics of Place: Montesquieu, Particularism, and the Pursuit of Liberty

Bandoch, Joshua

Hardcover

PhilosophyGeneral Political ScienceGeneral World History

ISBN10: 1580469027
ISBN13: 9781580469029
Publisher: Univ Of Rochester Pr
Published: Nov 15 2017
Pages: 266
Weight: 1.24
Height: 0.75 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
A critical reexamination of Montesquieu's political science, revealing the primacy of place in the development of the best political order.

Many Enlightenment thinkers sought to discover the right political order for all times and all places, and scholars often view Montesquieu as working within this project. In this reassessment of Montesquieu's political thought, Joshua Bandoch finds that Montesquieu broke from this ideal and, by taking into account the variation of societies, offered a more fruitful approach to the study of politics.

Through a careful reading of Montesquieu's political writings, Bandoch shows that for Montesquieu the politics, economics, and morals of a society must fit a particular place and its people. As long as states commit to pursuing security, liberty, and prosperity, states can -- indeed, should -- define and advance these goals in their own particular ways. Montesquieu saw that the circumstances of a place -- its religion, commerce, laws, institutions, physical environment, and mores -- determine the best political order for that place. In this sense, Montesquieu is the great innovator of what Bandoch calls the politics of place. This new reading of Montesquieu also provides fresh insights into the American founding, which Montesquieu so heavily influenced. Instead of having discerned the right political order, Bandoch argues, the Founders instituted a good political order, of which there are numerous versions.

Joshua Bandoch earned his PhD in political science from the University of Notre Dame. He has taught at Brown University and the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

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