Going back to consider the political theory, authority, and liberty in history, we can take a look at Machiavelli and Hobbes’ perspectives and different features of documents as primary sources, so that we can comprehend how these two great philosophers viewed the themes differently. My first theme that I would extend on Machiavelli and Hobbes’ notions would be on political theory.
Logical consistency and abstract reasoning are the standards to which political theory in the classic era are assessed (Ashcraft, 1980). Theoretical interpreters have seen their role as historic missions to straighten the logical muddles (Ashcraft, 1980) of ancient masters in order to relay the message they originally had. In the midst of the progression of political philosophy, political theory also went along with the flow of its own evolution. The questions raised by historicism today are considered to be the most urgent by
Undoubtedly politics is “the study of influence and the influential”, there is most certainly truth in Harold D.Lasswell’s definition of politics. Throughout the course of this essay the study of politics will be examined in relation to Laswell’s definition. Furthermore the concept of government and how people influence government action will be looked at. In Lasswell’s book “Politics, Who Gets What, When and How” he clearly outlines the “influential are those who get the most of what there is to get”, in his opinion politics was primarily to do with power and influence. Lasswell’s definition of politics has been in the past supported by prominent political scientists such as Abraham Kaplan and Robert A. Dahl, both men believe the study of politics is largely to do with the use of influence by those who find themselves in influential positions.
The progression of political philosophy did not only influence the formation of political science alone but also the emergence of political theory. Political science’s significance to political theory is as the same as political philosophy. It is a supplement of political theory; if political theory is separated to political philosophy, its meaning will appear distorted and irrelevant (Chiranjeev, Jacob, & Natarajan,
First is the method and approach the philosopher and second is the philosopher 's agenda that made him came up with the methods he used. It can be defined as the reflection of our political institution such as our government system and how the current regime lead a nation. Political Philosophers often apply their own principle on what’s the current system they are seeing. This said method includes analyzing basic ideas like freedom, justice, authority and democracy and apply them to the current political state. Some philosophy ends up changing the current political state of a place.
In the first section of Common Sense, Thomas Paine characterizes government as he sees it, which is still an influential viewpoint. His characterization is perhaps best summed up in his own succinct words: “government even in its best state is but a necessary evil.” These words speak measures to his attitude towards the fundamental nature of government—an attitude that shaped a political party in his time that has evolved over time with the core concept relatively intact. For Paine and modern conservatives alike, government is only rendered necessary due to the inadequacies of moral virtue in running a society. To illustrate this concept, Paine supports his idea with a hypothetical island. When a society develops, it will become necessary for a government to compensate for the eventual defect of moral virtue in individuals.
However, the theory has been placed under constant scrutiny and problems in the theories assumptions have been shown. My aim in this essay is to analyse the key points of Rational choice theory and humans as utility maximisers, and whether it is a useful tool in political problems. The dominant school of thought that transcended across many different academic fields such as economics, political science and psychology in the twentieth century is that of rational choice theory. Rational choice theory is an attempt to analyse human behaviour in a more ‘scientific’ manner. It assumes that human beings, performing as self-interested rational beings would always act as rational consumers in economic terms.
However, this is tied directly to the fundamental understanding of democracy in that citizens have the power to influence their sovereign through becoming the sovereign (through majority decisions). Democracy is good. Democracy is bad whenever the majority abuses its freedoms to serve individual desire. In other words, the characteristics of a democracy are solely dependent on its citizens and there might be more of a convincing reason to believe that both Plato and Aristotle’s criticisms are a result of human nature, instead of democracy itself. IV.
Such laws are arguably of great importance in for instance politics. If every phenomenon related to human affairs would be treated separately, overarching similarities would be overlooked. I therefor argue that inductive reasoning is a convenient method for the social sciences and humanities. First I will elaborate on the theory of induction, the problems that induction encounters and then I will illustrate this based on a research done by political scientist Robert Putnam. When approaching a phenomenon with the nomothetic approach, the conclusions that can be drawn from this can be done through either induction or deduction.
in the political sphere, first thing to do is constitute itself from what Derrida calls “constitutive outside”. Mouffe thinks that this the crucial point for her conceptualisation of democracy theory because only if there is a difference in public, there is a power which can be limited by institutions. So modern liberal democracy is under illusion that people can free themselves from forms of power but on the contrary under guise of neutrality liberal democratic institutions practice forms of exclusion and violent acts in order to reach consensus. In nowadays liberal democracy is seen as an only legitimate form of government. Especially after the collapse of U.S.S.R, political theorists who defend the politics is