Quentin Skinner's State: Historical Method and Traditions of Discourse

Abstract

In contrast to recent commentators on Quentin Skinner's Foundations of Modern Political Thought, this work argues that Skinner's approach to the development of the modern theory of the state is strictly consistent with his earlier methodological proposals. But it is also established that Skinner's consistency ultimately leaves him without a “genuinely historical” basis for a unified state-tradition within late medieval and early modern Europe. The article proposes an alternative historical methodology which allows for the explanation of persisting traditions of discourse (such as that of the state) within a coherent historical framework. © 1985, Canadian Political Science Association (l'Association canadienne de science politique) and/et la Société québécoise de science politique. All rights reserved.