The Military Revolution and Political Change: Origins of Democracy and Autocracy in Early Modern Europe

The Military Revolution and Political Change: Origins of Democracy and Autocracy in Early Modern Europe
ISBN-10
0691222185
ISBN-13
9780691222189
Category
History
Pages
323
Language
English
Published
2020-12-08
Publisher
Princeton University Press
Author
Brian Downing

Description

To examine the long-run origins of democracy and dictatorship, Brian Downing focuses on the importance of medieval political configurations and of military modernization in the early modern period. He maintains that in late medieval times an array of constitutional arrangements distinguished Western Europe from other parts of the world and predisposed it toward liberal democracy. He then looks at how medieval constitutionalism was affected by the "military revolution" of the early modern era--the shift from small, decentralized feudal levies to large standing armies. Downing won the American Political Science Association's Gabriel Almond Award for the dissertation on which this book was based.

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