Political jurisprudence

This essay presents an overview of key elements of the discipline of political jurisprudence. It explains the significance of such basic concepts as politics, state, constitution to the building of political authority and examines, in particular, the significance of two different concepts of power: potestas, the power generated by being-in-common and experienced as ‘power to’, and potentia, the ability to achieve intended effects, experienced as ‘power over’. Political jurisprudence, it argues, entails more than the explication of certain principles of political right. Of its nature, it expresses an endless tension between different conceptions of right and maintains that reconciliation is transitory, the result of prudential judgment.