The Evolution and Integration of Modern European States in the History of Liberal Thought. The Cases of Bertrand de Jouvenel, Michael Oakeshott and Wolfgang Reinhard

This paper will focus on the genesis of the Modern European State in the contemporary liberal theories, in order to analyse the relationship between individual liberty, Integration and the State power. With this aim, I am going to examine three main liberal authors that have dealt with this topic: Bertrand de Jouvenel, Michael Oakeshott and Wolfgang Reinhard. In "Du Pouvoir" (1945), Jouvenel traces the history of the European politics attempting to demonstrate how the State power has grown in times, undermining individual liberty. Influenced by Tocqueville, he states that in the Middle Ages the power of the sovereign was mitigated by the presence of intermediate bodies, represented by the aristocracy and other various trade guilds. That Modern European State was characterized by a greater despotism, which we can still find today: because of the elimination of intermediate bodies and the creation of an inefficient and corrupt bureaucracy. In his book “On Human Conduct” (1975), Oakeshott underlines the communitarian, yet not despotic, character of the medieval society. Like Jouvenel, he states that the government’s power nowadays is much larger than otherwise. Its aim is to reflect on the increase ability to control citizens. Finally, Reinhard supports in his work “Geschichte der Staatsgewalt” (1999, “History of State Power”, my own translation”) a thesis very similar to Jouvenel’s. He compares the welfare state and the totalitarian state: intense state activity pervades any aspect of human life, not only in totalitarism, but also in democratic systems. This situation is presented as the direct result of the formation of modern democracies and the identification of the citizen with the state as a nation.