Political Theory Of Thomas Hobbes

1. Thomas Hobbes-

Hobbes was a pre-enlightenment age thinker in Europe who lived in the seventeenth century. Monarchy was in vogue these days and there was a serious tussle going around that time in England in regards to political power between the Parliament and King Charles I and in scrutiny of this, Hobbes came up with the concept of ‘state of nature’ and that of a ‘social contract’ in his book ‘Leviathan’. Hobbes theory was one where he did not consider any separation of power but believed in a supreme all-powerful sovereign (contextually the monarch) who would impose peace and order over everyone. This support for the ‘absolute king’ withholding all power was under the belief that the more power was distributed, the higher were the odds of chaos, inconsistency and mayhem in the society.

Source: Leviathan, Thomas Hobbes

2. John Locke: ‘The Reluctant Democrat’

John Locke was a thinker from the late seventeenth century. He was one of the few great thinkers who witnessed first-hand one of the first democratic revolutions in the modern times when the Parliament of Britain took over the control of the state from a Roman Catholic king into their own hands in 1685. And thus, Locke’s proposition of the form of government was inspired by the events transpiring and the ideas circulating in those days. And thus, what we find in ‘Two Treatises of Government’, a book by John Locke is the description of a limited representative government which was very minimalist in its influence