Beschreibung
Since Jean Bodin and Thomas Hobbes, political theorists have
depicted the state as „sovereign“ because it holds
preeminent authority over all the denizens belonging to its
geographically defined territory. From the Peace of
Westphalia in 1648 until the beginning of World War I in
1914, the essential responsiblities ascribcd to the
sovereign state were maintaining internal and external
security and promoting domestic prosperity. This idea of
„the state“ in political theory is clearly inadequate to
the realities of national governments and international
relations at the beginning of the twenty-first century.
During the twentieth century, the sovereign state, as a
reality and an idea, has been variously challenged from
without and within its borders. Where will the state head in
the age of globalisation? Can Catholic polilical thinking
contribute to an adequate concept of statehood and
government? A group of German and American scholars were
asked to explore specific ways in which the intellectual
traditions of Catholicism might help our effort lo rethink
the state. The debate is guided by the conviction that these
intellectual resources will prove valuable to political
theorists as they work to revise our understanding of the
state.
