Justice as the Aim of The Monarch’s Authority: The Evolution of the Idea from Plato to the Close of the Enlightenment

The Polish version of the article was published in Roczniki Humanistyczne 58 (2010), issue 2. The idea of the justice of the authority in the general meaning remains a central topic in Polish political theory. This has resulted in the frequent tackling of this problem, but it has not been reflected in the complexity of the theory. It is even difficult to talk about a theory in the case of the considerations analyzed. They were mostly very superficial mentions of the monarch’s justice, permeated with old-Polish legalism, a legalism reduced to the rule: the king is obliged to observe legal norms and to give priority to the good of those ruled over his own interests. This model determined the deliberations about justice. Most theoreticians could not see the possibility of strengthening the king’s influence on dispensing justice in the country, although there were exceptions to this view and not only among monarchists. Owing to this model in Polish political thought, after the fall of the First Republic of Poland it was easier to accept the idea of justice dispensed by broad bodies representing the community. The model was not even overturned by the instrumental transfer of the idea of natural justice to Poland. It was also not overturned by the doubts expressed by Wybicki about the possibilities of linking justice to the subjects’ happiness and political freedom