Hobbes: life without government is nasty, brutish, and short — need a Leviathan
Hobbes — Social Contract
Thomas Hobbes believed a strong sovereign is necessary to prevent chaos
State of nature = constant war of all against all. People surrender freedoms to a sovereign (the Leviathan) in exchange for security. Justifies absolute authority.
Locke — Natural Rights
Locke: life, liberty, property — government exists to protect these natural rights
Locke — Natural Rights
If government fails to protect rights, citizens may revolt
People are born with natural rights. Government is a contract: protect rights or lose legitimacy. Directly influenced Jefferson, the Declaration of Independence, and constitutional government.
Rousseau — General Will
Rousseau: people are naturally good — civilization corrupts, general will guides
Rousseau — General Will
Humans are good by nature; society distorts them
The general will represents what is truly best for the whole community. Influenced the French Revolution and democratic theory. Opposite of Hobbes: nature is peaceful, society is corrupting.
Marx — Historical Materialism
Marx: history is class struggle — capitalism will give way to communism
Marx — Historical Materialism
Economic class conflict drives all of history
Bourgeoisie (owners) exploit proletariat (workers). This contradiction leads to revolution → socialism → classless stateless communism. Influenced USSR, China, Cuba.
Utilitarianism
Utilitarianism: greatest good for the greatest number — Bentham and Mill
Utilitarianism
The ethical theory that judges actions by their outcomes
Jeremy Bentham: pleasure and pain are the only relevant factors. Actions are right if they maximize overall happiness. John Stuart Mill refined it. Consequentialism: only outcomes matter, not intentions or rules.
Plato — The Republic
Plato's Republic: philosopher-kings should rule. Democracy is mob rule. Justice = each doing their proper function.
Plato — The Republic
The foundational text of Western political philosophy
Plato (428-348 BC): ideal state ruled by philosopher-kings — those with wisdom and virtue. Three classes: guardians (rulers), auxiliaries (military), producers (everyone else). Allegory of the Cave: most people see only shadows of truth. Critiques democracy as rule by those without knowledge.
Aristotle — Politics
Aristotle: man is a political animal. Mixed constitution best — avoids tyranny of one, few, or many.
Aristotle — Politics
Empirical approach to political science — classified 158 constitutions
Aristotle (384-322 BC): humans naturally form political communities. Three good forms: monarchy, aristocracy, polity. Three corrupt forms: tyranny, oligarchy, democracy. Best practical: mixed constitution (polity) — combines elements of oligarchy and democracy. Middle class is stabilizing force.
Machiavelli — The Prince
Machiavelli: The Prince — better to be feared than loved. Ends justify means in politics.
Machiavelli — The Prince
The first modern political theorist — separated politics from morality
Niccolò Machiavelli (1469-1527): successful rulers must be willing to use force and deception when necessary. Virtu (skill and decisiveness) + Fortuna (luck/circumstances). Better to be feared than loved — but don't be hated. Lions and foxes: force and cunning. Separated political analysis from Christian ethics.
The political tradition that underlies most Western democracies
Not 'liberal' in the American political sense. Classical liberalism: individual liberty is the highest political value. Government must be limited and consent-based. Rule of law: government bound by law like everyone else. Key thinkers: Locke, Smith, Mill, Tocqueville. Foundation of constitutional democracy and human rights.
Conservatism — Burke
Conservatism: tradition, order, gradual change. Burke: society is a partnership between the dead, living, and unborn.
Conservatism — Burke
Edmund Burke's response to the French Revolution founded modern conservatism
Edmund Burke (1729-1797): society is an organic partnership across generations. Radical change destroys accumulated wisdom embedded in traditions and institutions. Reform must be gradual and cautious. Hierarchy and order are natural. 'The state ought not to be considered as nothing better than a partnership agreement in a trade.'
The Social Contract Tradition
Social contract: individuals give up some freedom to government in exchange for security and order
The Social Contract Tradition
Three very different versions of the same fundamental idea
All three agree: legitimate government rests on consent of the governed. Hobbes: rational self-interest drives people to accept absolute sovereign to escape the state of nature. Locke: government protects pre-existing natural rights — can be overthrown if it fails. Rousseau: the general will represents the common good.
John Rawls — A Theory of Justice
Rawls: veil of ignorance — design society not knowing your place in it → justice as fairness
John Rawls — A Theory of Justice
The most influential political philosophy of the 20th century
John Rawls (1971): imagine choosing principles for society behind a 'veil of ignorance' — not knowing your race, class, gender, abilities. Rational people would choose: equal basic liberties (first principle) and inequalities allowed only if they benefit the least advantaged (difference principle). Foundation of modern liberal egalitarianism.
Rawls vs Nozick
Rawls = veil of fairness, Nozick = hands off my property
The great 20th-century debate — egalitarian liberalism vs libertarianism
Rawls and Nozick represent the two poles of liberal political philosophy on justice and redistribution
Rawls (1971): veil of ignorance — choose principles not knowing your position. Difference principle: inequalities only justified if they benefit the least well-off. Supports redistributive welfare state. Nozick (1974): self-ownership — taxation for redistribution is forced labor. Only minimal state justified. Entitlement theory: just holdings from just acquisition and voluntary transfer.
Rawls
Veil of ignorance leads to difference principle and welfare state
Nozick
Self-ownership leads to minimal state — no redistribution
Key question
What is a just distribution of wealth and resources?
Democracy Theories
PEAD — Pluralist, Elite, Aggregative, Deliberative
Four theories of how democracy works or should work
Different theorists disagree on whether democracy is about preference aggregation, deliberation, or elite rule
Pluralist (Dahl): democracy is competition among interest groups — power dispersed. Elite theory (Mosca, Mills): small elite always rules regardless of formal democracy. Aggregative: democracy adds up preferences via voting — Arrow's impossibility theorem shows no perfect voting method. Deliberative (Habermas): democracy requires rational public discourse for legitimacy.
Pluralist
Many competing groups — no single dominant interest wins always
Elite
Power elite always governs — Mosca, Mills, Pareto
Deliberative
Habermas — legitimacy requires public reasoning not just votes
Burke's conservatism vs Locke's liberalism — the foundational ideological divide
Burke prioritizes tradition and gradual change; Locke prioritizes individual rights and reason
Classical conservatism (Burke): tradition embodies accumulated wisdom, change should be gradual, institutions matter, skeptical of abstract reason. Classical liberalism (Locke): natural rights (life, liberty, property), government by consent, limited government. Modern liberalism: welfare state, positive liberty. Modern conservatism: free market, traditional values, strong defense.
Burke
Tradition and prudence — organic change, institutions matter
Locke
Natural rights, consent of governed, right to revolt
HCCS — Historical materialism, Class struggle, Capitalism to Socialism, State withers
Marx's theory of history, capitalism, and revolutionary transformation
Marx argued capitalism contains internal contradictions that inevitably lead to its replacement
Historical materialism: history driven by economic conditions and class conflict. Modes of production: feudalism to capitalism to socialism to communism. Bourgeoisie (owners) vs proletariat (workers) — exploitation via surplus value. Capitalism's contradictions lead to crisis and revolution. State is instrument of ruling class. Communism: classless, stateless society after socialist transition.
Base
Economic relations determine superstructure — politics, culture, law
Class
Bourgeoisie vs proletariat — irreconcilable conflict
Revolution
Proletariat seizes state, leads to communism
🎓 Common Exam Questions
Q: Compare the social contract theories of Hobbes, Locke, and Rousseau in detail.
A: Hobbes (Leviathan, 1651): state of nature is war of all against all — life is solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short. Rational actors surrender all rights to sovereign for security — absolute sovereignty justified. Locke (Second Treatise, 1689): state of nature is tolerable but rights are insecure. People retain natural rights to life, liberty, and property — surrender only enforcement rights. Government requires consent, and there is a right to revolt when rights are violated. This is the basis for classical liberalism. Rousseau (Social Contract, 1762): natural man is innocent, civilization corrupts. General will represents common interest of community, distinct from sum of individual preferences. More democratic and collectivist — influenced the French Revolution significantly.
Q: Explain Rawls's theory of justice as fairness in full detail.
A: Rawls's method uses the original position plus the veil of ignorance — choose principles of justice without knowing your class, race, gender, natural talents, or life plan. The rational strategy is maximin — maximize the minimum position since you might end up at the bottom. Results in two principles: (1) Equal Basic Liberties Principle — each person has equal basic political and civil liberties. (2) Difference Principle — social and economic inequalities are only justified if they benefit the least well-off members of society. Liberty takes priority over equality in order. Rawls opposed utilitarianism (which can sacrifice minorities) and libertarianism (which ignores background injustice). His theory is the dominant 20th-century statement of egalitarian liberalism.
Q: What are the communitarian, feminist, and postcolonial critiques of liberalism?
A: Communitarian critique (MacIntyre, Sandel, Taylor): liberalism's unencumbered self is a fiction — we are constituted by our communities, traditions, and social roles. Rights-talk ignores communal bonds and civic obligations, and the individual prior to community is an abstraction without real meaning. Feminist critique (Carol Gilligan, Catharine MacKinnon): liberal theory is derived from male experience — abstract rights ignore care, relationships, and private sphere domination. The liberal public-private distinction hides gender oppression in the family. Postcolonial critique (Fanon, Said): liberal universalism masks Western particularism — supposedly universal rights are culturally specific and historically served to justify colonial domination and conquest.
Q: What is political authority and when is it legitimate according to different theories?
A: Political authority is the right to rule and the corresponding obligation for citizens to obey. Theories of legitimacy: Consent theory (Locke, social contract) — authority legitimate only with consent of the governed, with a right to revolt if consent is violated. Consequentialist — authority is legitimate if it produces good outcomes like security and welfare. Democratic — authority is legitimate when derived from the will of the people through elections. Fairness (Rawls) — authority is legitimate when it follows principles that could be agreed to from behind the veil of ignorance. Weber identified three types: traditional authority based on custom, charismatic authority from personality, and rational-legal authority based on rules.
Q: Compare utilitarian and deontological approaches to ethics and political theory.
A: Utilitarianism (Bentham, Mill): the right action produces the greatest happiness for the greatest number. Consequentialist — judge actions entirely by their outcomes. Strengths: empirical, democratic, accounts for welfare and real consequences. Weaknesses: can justify harming minorities, measurement problem across persons, demandingness leaves no room for personal projects. Deontological ethics (Kant): right action means acting from duty according to the categorical imperative — act only on principles you could will to be universal law. Rights are absolute and cannot be violated even for good outcomes. Strengths: protects individual rights with principled consistency. Weaknesses: inflexible, ignores real consequences. Rawls's theory is contractarian — neither purely consequentialist nor strictly Kantian but closer to the deontological tradition.