ABSTRACT

Joseph de Maistre was a great political philosopher who articulated a passionate affirmation of royal sovereignty that cannot be found in the British strain of conservatism. In Maistre the sovereign is the instrument for moral liberation; the sovereign makes certain that the higher self is triumphant over impulses in revolt. Maistre's logic seems iron-clad and was theological in origin. He insisted on the corruption of man, the original Fall of human beings, and the consequent inner evil. Maistre's theological purpose in using divine law was a shadow of the physiocratic dilemma of relying on natural law. Maistre was so anxious to close the gap between power and legitimacy that he undermined legitimacy itself. Maistre was of course not a liberal economist but a Catholic; but an absolute sovereign may not in all cases serve the Catholic purpose. Maistre was holding that man was made for social relations; the law of nature was revealed in the impact of society on man.