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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 January 2025
For Spinoza, the state (civitas, imperium) is the most basic political unit. (Spinoza generally reserves the term “republic,” respublica, for well-functioning states that promote the welfare of all, e.g., TTP16.33). There are several components of the state. There is a sovereign, or the part of the state that holds the power or right to legislate, assign civil rights, and to make decisions about war and peace (see esp. TP2.17, TP3, TP4.1). In the TP, Spinoza claims that sovereignty is “defined by the power of a multitude” though it can take several different “forms” (formae): monarchy, aristocracy, or democracy (TP2.17). His point seems to be that while the power (potestas) of the sovereign depends upon, and is constrained by, the power of the multitude (potentia multitudinis), the office of the sovereign – that is, the member(s) that issue laws and thereby act as the “mind” of the state (TP4.1) – need not be democratically constituted (see Steinberg 2019a; Matheron 2020).
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