This year 2020 marks the 25th anniversary of Liberty Fund's publication of Politica, an abridged edition of Johannes Althusius's Politics Methodically Set Forth and Illustrated with Sacred and Profane Examples, first published in Latin in 1603 and then revised through a third edition published in 1614. Liberty Fund's edition was the first vernacular translation of any substantial portion of Althusius's work. Professor Frederick Carney of Southern Methodist University served as translator. Professor Daniel Elazar, eminent scholar of federalism and Hebraic political theory at Temple University, wrote the foreword.
Althusius (1557-1638), who studied theology in Basle, Roman law in Geneva, and completed doctoral studies in civil and ecclesiastical law, was not just a scholar but also a practitioner of politics. The people of Emden in East Friesland made him their Syndic. Though some have compared a Syndic to a mayor, this tempts one to infer that Althusius contracted municipal trash collection or handed out giant keys to the city. To the contrary, Emden was essentially a small polity or city-state in an elaborate web of political and ecclesiastical rivalries. Althusius became a statesman in a diverse and tense religious-political milieu, navigating precarious relationships with a Lutheran provincial lord, a Catholic emperor, and a Spanish Kingdom.
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