Philosopher

James Harrington

English republican theorist — The Commonwealth of Oceana and the balance of property

Rota Club, London (1659-1660) · United Kingdom · d. 3 January 1611 (Upton, Northamptonshire) — 11 September 1677 (Westminster, London)

A gentleman of the Cromwellian interregnum who attended Charles I in captivity and then wrote the most systematic republican treatise of the century. The Commonwealth of Oceana (1656) argued that political power follows the distribution of land, and proposed an agrarian law, rotation of office and the secret ballot to keep it balanced. Arrested in 1661, he was held in the Tower and at Plymouth, and his health never recovered.

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Record

Life: 3 January 1611 (Upton, Northamptonshire) — 11 September 1677 (Westminster, London)
Country: United Kingdom
Period: Early Modern
Affiliation: Rota Club, London (1659-1660)
Areas: Political philosophy, Republicanism, Constitutional theory
Major works: The Commonwealth of Oceana (1656)
The Prerogative of Popular Government (1658)
The Art of Lawgiving (1659)
Aphorisms Political (1659)
A System of Politics (written c. 1661, published 1700)
Key concepts: The balance of dominion (property determines power), Agrarian law, Rotation of office, Secret ballot, An empire of laws and not of men, Ancient prudence versus modern prudence
Influenced by: Niccolò Machiavelli, Aristotle, Polybius, Thomas Hobbes, The Venetian constitution, Moses and the Hebrew commonwealth
Sources: Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, James Harrington
Wikipedia, James Harrington (author)

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