Johannes Althusius (1563 - August 12, 1638) [1] was a jurist and Calvinist political philosopher. He is most famous for his 1603 work, "Politica Methodice Digesta, Atque Exemplis Sacris et Profanis Illustrata" (Latin for "Politics Methodically Digested, Illustrated with Sacred and Profane Examples"); revised editions were published in 1610 and 1614. The ideas expressed therein have led many to consider him one of the first true federalist,[1] as the greatest intellectual thinker in the early development of federalism in the 16. and 17. century and also an advocate of popular sovereignty.[1] He was one of the first who revived republican discourse on origins of political community as civil society.

Althusius's "Politics Methodically Set Forth and Illustrated with Sacred and Profane Examples", known today simply as "Politica" or Althusius's "Politics", was originally published in Germany in 1603. Professor Carney's translation, which first appeared in 1964, represents the first attempt to present the basic structure of Althusius's political thought in English. "Politica" is now recognised as an extraordinary contribution to the intellectual history of the West. It combines ancient and medieval political philosophy with Reformation theory, and is considered a bridge between the political wisdom of the ancients and the moderns. Friedrich thought Althusius was the most profound political thinker between Bodin and Hobbes. Drawing deeply from Aristotle and Biblical teaching, "Politica" presents a unique vision of the commonwealth as a harmonious ordering of natural associations. According to Althusius, the purpose of the state is to protect and encourage social life. The family is the most natural of human associations, and all other unions derive from it. Power and authority properly grow from more local to more general associations. Each higher union must protect the associations that compose it, seeing to it that all of them are able to carry out the purposes for which they were established. The highest purpose of human association is devotion to God, which the state must encourage, but which properly is the province of a higher religious authority. Of particular interest to the modern reader is Althusius's theory of federalism. It does not refer merely to a division of powers between central and state governments, but to an ascending scale of authority in which higher institutions rely on the consent of local and voluntary associations.