{"title":"The Constitution of Hierarchy","authors":"Adrian Vermeule","doi":"10.1007/s40647-024-00401-8","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p>Drawing upon Roman public law and the classical Western <i>ius commune</i> generally, I sketch a law-governed <i>constitution of hierarchy</i>, including its institutional form and its basic justification. Grounded in a popular delegation of sovereign authority and power (<i>imperium</i> and <i>potestas</i>) to the Roman emperors and subordinate officials, the constitution of hierarchy is pervasively shaped and constrained by law and legal norms, written and unwritten, that orient the lawful exercise of power to the public good; it includes subsidiary democratic mechanisms of petitioning, consultation, and local and provincial democracy. The alternative to the constitution of hierarchy is not political egalitarianism, but an alternative hierarchy of arbitrary and exploitative rule, dominated by an economic and social class of <i>optimates</i>.</p>","PeriodicalId":43537,"journal":{"name":"Fudan Journal of the Humanities and Social Sciences","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.3000,"publicationDate":"2024-07-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Fudan Journal of the Humanities and Social Sciences","FirstCategoryId":"1092","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s40647-024-00401-8","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"SOCIAL SCIENCES, INTERDISCIPLINARY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Drawing upon Roman public law and the classical Western ius commune generally, I sketch a law-governed constitution of hierarchy, including its institutional form and its basic justification. Grounded in a popular delegation of sovereign authority and power (imperium and potestas) to the Roman emperors and subordinate officials, the constitution of hierarchy is pervasively shaped and constrained by law and legal norms, written and unwritten, that orient the lawful exercise of power to the public good; it includes subsidiary democratic mechanisms of petitioning, consultation, and local and provincial democracy. The alternative to the constitution of hierarchy is not political egalitarianism, but an alternative hierarchy of arbitrary and exploitative rule, dominated by an economic and social class of optimates.
期刊介绍：
Fudan Journal of the Humanities and Social Sciences (FJHSS) is a peer-reviewed academic journal that publishes research papers across all academic disciplines in the humanities and social sciences. The Journal aims to promote multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary studies, bridge diverse communities of the humanities and social sciences in the world, provide a platform of academic exchange for scholars and readers from all countries and all regions, promote intellectual development in China’s humanities and social sciences, and encourage original, theoretical, and empirical research into new areas, new issues, and new subject matters. Coverage in FJHSS emphasizes the combination of a “local” focus (e.g., a country- or region-specific perspective) with a “global” concern, and engages in the international scholarly dialogue by offering comparative or global analyses and discussions from multidisciplinary or interdisciplinary perspectives. The journal features special topics, special issues, and original articles of general interest in the disciplines of humanities and social sciences. The journal also invites leading scholars as guest editors to organize special issues or special topics devoted to certain important themes, subject matters, and research agendas in the humanities and social sciences.
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