The concept oflegal despotism (French:despotisme légal) formed part of the basis of the18th century Frenchphysiocrats'political doctrine, developed alongside their more popularly known (in modern day)economic thought. This political concept was first introduced by theèconomisteFrançois Quesnay (1694-1774) in his 1767treatiseDespotism in China (French:Le despotisme de la Chine) and followed in development that same year byPierre-Paul Lemercier (1719-1801) in his text,The Natural and Essential Order of Political Societies (L'Ordre naturel et essentiel des sociétés politiques).
The political form envisioned by Quesnay, Lemercier, and their associates was aunitary authority within astate with bothexecutive andlegislative powers endowed unto andespotrestricted in power only by ajudicial system of magistrates ensuring that the monarch is limited in actions only by legal interpretations ofnatural law, and understandings of political-economic rights such as liberty, property, and security.[1][2] Besides the envisionedsingle tax (impôt unique) levied based on the productiveness of agricultural land, the legal despot would remain outside of the general domain of the economic sphere, leaving it be (laissez-faire) in accordance with stated natural laws.
Physiocrats likeQuesnay[1] andLemercier[2] believed in a governmental system based around a despot who ruled in accordance with defined terms in natural law. Lemercier in his 1767 treatise likened absolute rule bound only by natural law towards apersonification ofEuclidean geometry:[3]
Euclid is a true despot; and the geometrical truths which he has transmitted to us are truly despotic laws: their legal despotism and the personal despotism of this legislator are only one, that of the irresistible force of evidence: by this means, for centuries the despot Euclid has reigned without contradiction over all enlightened peoples; and he will not cease to exercise the same despotism over them, as long as he does not have contradictions to experience on the part of ignorance.[2]
In the opening of his treatiseDespotism in China (1767), Quesnay notes the distinction he makes between:[3]
In order to prevent the transformation of a legal despot into an arbitrary despot, their power was to bechecked and balanced by the powers ofmagistrates performingjudicial review on positive laws created by the despot. Lemercier in his 1767 workThe Natural and Essential Order of Political Societies, proposes the powers of the judiciary to not just be in charge of checking thea priori control of the "laws to be made" but also to enforce ana posteriori control of the "laws made", thereby becoming the organ of government ensuring compliance from both the despot and society.[2][4]
The physiocrats'doctrine of legal despotism disseminated widely across European intellectual and administrative circles, with Lemercier's 1767 treatise becoming the center of physiocraticpolitical propaganda. Rulers such asCatherine II of Russia sought Lemercier's personal advice, and the future King of SwedenGustav III found inspiration from the text leading to his1772 revolution against theSwedish estates.
GenevanphilosopherJean-Jacques Rousseau in a 1767 letter to the physiocratMarquis de Mirabeau, wrote:
Sir, whatever happens, don't talk to me any more about your legal despotism. I cannot taste it or even hear it; and I see only two contradictory words, which together mean nothing to me.[5]
FellowFrenchmanVoltaire wrote in regard to the intellectual depth of legal despotism in his 1768 fableThe Man of Forty Crowns (L'Homme aux quarante écus):
Bizarre expressions, such as those of legal despotism, had been used in a great number of works to express the government of an absolute sovereign who would conform all his wills to the demonstrated principles ofpolitical economy.[6]
Voltaire also attacks the physiocrats' justifications for theirsingle tax on land as derived from their conception of natural law:[3]
I have read M. de la Rivière’s book. Perhaps it is because I cultivate a few acres of land myself that I am disinclined to see land alone burdened with taxes. I fear he may commit an error albeit with considerable wit.[6]
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