Abstract (eng)
The aim of the present study is to examine the idea and essence of early-modern statehood in Western Europe, by means of a semantic differential analysis, with a special emphasis on Italy, England and France. Within the evolutionary progress and the development of statehood as well as within the process of differentiation of social systems, we find – in accordance with our research-guiding hypotheses – that so-called semantic dif-ferential-states emerge between a socio-structural evolution and an evolution of ideas; they emerge in conjunction with the transition from a stratified to a functionally differentiated society. In order to be able to prove these semantic differential-states as well as the matter of temporalization of semantics, which remains related to them, we must first look at the juridical-political, socio-cultural and historical conditions of the three centuries involved, from various angles and in diachronic comparison. The second section of the thesis proceeds to the idea-historical core of the nature of the state itself. It focuses on the discourse of reason of state (ragione di stato as the art of governing) and continues by analyzing the early-modern contractualism (social contract theory). Finally, in the third section of the thesis, the socio-structural and idea-historical tendencies of statehood are being led towards a contrasting comparison: apart from a linguistic-semantic analysis of status-stato-Staat, other sovereignty-centered and legal-semantic differential-states are being discussed. The aim and objective of the study was to search for asynchronous dynamics in different systemic development strands, within a process of co-evolution, in the semantics and in the collective body of thought of political philosophy.