Early Modern Democracy in the Grisons
Social Order and Political Language in a Swiss Mountain Canton, 1470–1620

A 1995 study of one of the most unusual political entities in early modern Europe, in the Swiss Alps.

Randolph C. Head (Author)

9780521893794, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 9 May 2002

308 pages, 2 b/w illus. 5 maps 2 tables
22.9 x 15.2 x 2.3 cm, 0.495 kg

"Head's approach is a convincing one. His study treats the political culture at three different levels: that of the constitutional institutions, that of popular actions, and that of the political language." Andreas WÜrgler, Jrnl of Modern History

The Freestate of the Three Leagues in the Grisons, a rural confederation in the Swiss Alps, was one of the most unusual political entities in early modern Europe. In the sixteenth century, its inhabitants enjoyed popular sovereignty and remarkable local autonomy, and many of them insisted on political equality among citizens, and on political leaders' responsibilities to their communities. The author of this 1995 book uses pamphlets and political documents to trace the Freestate's evolution, focusing on its institutional structure and on the political language used by its inhabitants. This language included radical statements about 'democracy' and rule by the 'common man'. Even so, the Freestate participated in contemporary European political developments; but because it was different, it provides new perspectives on political ideas in sixteenth-century Europe. It represents a political culture distinct from both absolutism and later liberal ideas.

Acknowledgments
List of illustrations
Note on languages, orthography and abbreviations
Introduction: social order, politics, and political language in the Grisons, 1470–1520
1. Communalism and other political models in Europe and the Grisons
2. Rhaetia to 1520: geography, society, history
3. Local practice and federal government in the Freestate
4. From consolidation to communal politics, c. 1580–1620
5. Elite power and popular constraint in sixteenth-century Rhaetia
6. Reform, communal action and crisis, c. 1580–1620
7. Political language and political cosmology during the crisis years, 1617–22
Conclusion: democracy in early modern Rhaetia.

Subject Areas: Early modern history: c 1450/1500 to c 1700 [HBLH], European history [HBJD]