As I quickly near the legal voting age, I find myself faced with a big decision ; should I register as a democrat, as my forefathers before me have or , check into some of these other political parties. -After much consideration, I decided to see what all the commotion was about. What a surpr...

The aim of this essay is to explain Anarchism and to comprehend if it is a political ideology. There are a lot of anarchist thinkers and ordinary people which believe that anarchism is not a political ideology is only a theory in contradiction to the others which believe that anarchism is a p...

Early Human Society Between the years of 1500 and 1789, was a period of growing societies, government, culture, and the values of human beings. Many great English philosophers during this time such as John Locke, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and Thomas Hobbes wrote and collected their ideas that ...

What exactly does liberty mean? Well, to me it can mean a number of things. First of all, it can mean acting in whatever way you see fit for satisfying your own interests, desires and expectations to the extent that you don't infringe upon the very same liberties of the others. Secondly, libe...

I never dared to be radical when young For fear it would make me conservative when old. ~Robert Frost, 'Ten Mills,' A Further Range, 1936 Introduction In Beyond the Barricades: The Sixties Generation Grows Up, Whalen and Flacks examine the question of what happened to the idealism and radical a...

Women live in the same state of nature as men Hobbes' understanding of human nature and the state of nature is not gender-biassed. Although his syntax is male oriented, I believe that Hobbes thought of men and women as having the same nature. That is, in...

Majority Power vs. Justice When looking at the writings of Martin Luther King Jr. in, A Letter From a Birmingham Jail and Henry David Thoreau in Civil Disobedience, one finds that each man takes a somewhat different approach to delivering a message, but the messages are in fact similar, as bot...

The Republican Party Introduction The Republican Party, since its first convention in Michigan in 1854, has had philosophy that has remained relatively unchanged. Its oath entices Americans to believe that "good government is based on the individual and that each person's ability, dignity, fre...

Why Think? Uniqueness is a personal quality many people strive for. It is defined in the Merriam Webster Online Dictionary as: being without a like or equal. One can acquire this quality by thinking. When one thinks they express their opinions, ideas, intentions, expectations, judgments, conce...

Introduction: Politics, have always existed since the dawn of time, they exist because people argue and disagree, about how they should live, who should govern over whom and how power is distributed or monopolised. We all have different views/beliefs/opinions that we believe to be true and righ...

Divine Right to Rule--The Origin of Government The divine right to rule is one of the most important doctrines in history yet most people don't understand this concept. The first step in understanding the concept of the divine right to rule is to know its history. Once you understand the his...

The term "Machiavellian" is defined as being conniving, duplicitous, efficient, and calculating. This term derived its origin from the philosopher Niccolò Machiavelli. But was Machiavelli actually deserving of this expression? Through both building up my arguments, and ne...

It is my understanding that the Libertarian, Neo Liberal, the compassionate Conservative and the Progressive share one thing in common even though it may see that way. All seek the means to find a "Just Society" in which this nation can benefit economically and socially. The view point of the ...

Through the development of the Polis, both Hobbes and Rousseau have stood as highly influential theorists of the Social Contract. Although both writers would strongly agree for the development of society and the importance of a Social Contract, the actual methods and ends are quite distinct fo...

Dear Emperor, Rome's decline was caused by four main factors: military, political, social and economic. I believe the predominant factor to be political causes. The emperors seized all authority and became corrupt. Not only the emperors, but also the other officials and authority figures a...

The Way to Freedom is Alone In the 13th chapter of Leviathan, Thomas Hobbes writes "...men have no pleasure, but on the contrary a great deal of grief, in keeping company, where there is no power able to over-awe them all." The unconventional premise that ungoverned humans are solitary...

People in the western societies today are used to the idea of having rights and relying on them in their everyday life. Most of them would be aware of their rights and obligations. However, the picture would be very different in some eastern, African and Latin American societies. Still today there a...

Since the end of WWII a new and controversial theory has arisen in the political science world, the Rational Choice theory. This method concerns itself more precisely with explanation and analysis rather then the traditional descriptive and judgmental method of looking at political phenomenon. As sh...

Rousseau Rousseau clearly promotes a perfect utopian society in The Social Contract, which according to his theory would eliminate all societal problems and hints at Totalitarianism in a few passages from his Second Discourse. Although such a society would be wonderful, the ideas would never wo...

For one to be a good citizen, there are certain expectations a person must follow to achieve this goal. While many people have their own ideas of what makes a good citizen, there is little consensus to exactly what this would be. Thomas Hobbes and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, in their books The Levia...

In Book I of Plato's Republic, Thrasymachus makes the argument that the life of an unjust person is better than that of a just. He then abandons the argument in the beginning of Book II; nonetheless, Glaucon does not accept this desertion. Glaucon wants to be truly convinced that Thrasymachus' vie...

The Life of James I James Charles Stuart was born June 19, 1566 in Scotland. Before James reached one year old, his father, Lord Darnley, was murdered. His mother, who he never knew, Mary Queen of Scots, then ascended to the Scottish throne. She was forced to step down from her reign in 1567. ...

Anarchy Anarchism seems to be defined many ways by many different sources. Most dictionary definitions define anarchism as the absence of government. A leading modern dictionary, Webster's Third International Dictionary, defines anarchism briefly but accurately as, "a political theory opposed...

The State of Nature As Depicted by Locke and Hobbes Introduction The period of the Renaissance and Enlightenment was perhaps the greatest turning point in the course of human progress. The flame of reason and human endeavor, which had all but burnt out over the previous one thousand years, was ...

Book Review The Rauch Review In the book Government's End Jonathon Rauch paints a dark picture of the American political system. He says most all people in today's society belong to an interest group one way or another. " But the fact is that seven out of ten Americans belong...