Early Modern Concepts for a Late Modern World: Althusius on Community and Federalism

Agar Adamson is the author of Letters of Agar Adamson, 1914–19 and former chair of the Department of Political Science at Acadia University in Nova Scotia.

Thomas O. Hueglin, a professor of political science at Wilfrid Laurier
University, has written a balanced, well-documented, and
thought-provoking study of the German political theorist and municipal
politician Johannes Althusius (1557–1638). He makes a strong case that
Althusius, who might well be described as the founder of modern
federalism and consociationalism, has been unjustly neglected in favor
of more familiar political thinkers such as Montesquieu and Locke. In
addition to illustrating the usefulness of the study of political
thought, his exhaustively researched book leads the reader to wonder if
we have neglected other forms of pluralism as well. Early Modern
Concepts for a Late Modern World has much to offer students of political
philosophy.