CLASSICAL AND MODERN POLITICAL THEORIES

1. What is the theorist’s stated purpose in his work?

2. What is the central question that governs the work?
3. What the premises are and do you agree with them?
4. What conclusion does the theorist come to?
5. Are there any flaws in the reasoning?
6. Has the theorist avoided/missed any important issues?
7. What implications can you draw out based on what you learned from the theorist?

CICERO

1. In parts of The Republic and The Laws, Marcus Tullus Cicero (106 BC - 43 BC), Roman orator,
statesman and writer paints a positive picture of people and nature. Cicero lays out his ideal
commonwealth in On The Republic. He also introduced a balanced, composite constitution.
He provided principles of a well-governed political state modeled after Plato's Republic and
2. What is the ideal society or state?
3. Cicero argues that laws come from nature, not men. "what nature has given to humans;
what a quantity of wonderful things the human mind embraces; for the sake of performing
and fulfilling what function we are born and brought into the world; what serves to unite
people; and what natural bond there is between them."

4. Based on these views Cicero draws some conclusions. Written laws which may deviate from
natural law are not necessarily just laws. Each person can judge which laws are in accord
with natural law and thus "anyone who blocks a harmful measure shall be deemed a public
benefactor. Cicero tries in his book The Laws to suggest a constitution that would accord
with natural law. But in his constitution he does not give a prominent place for the just
intuition of the people to play a predominant role.
In summary, these views of Cicero are: The human species is one. We come together in
communities from an urge to be together both for fullfilment of our nature as social animals
and for the delight of human company. Nature has endowered all humans with reason
which can understand the natural urge and guide actions so we can live together. Right
reason is natural law. Justice is living in accord with natural law. Written law is not
 necessarily the same as natural law. People basically try to be just but there is also
corruption and it is infectious.
MACHIAVELLI

1. Discussed in The Prince, one of Niccolo Machiavelli’s outstanding work, are the different
kinds of government and different suggestions on how to effectively and successfully run a
government.
2. How to become an effective leader? How a prince may establish and maintain the strongest
possible government?
3. According to Machiavelli, those who become leaders because of the support of the
aristocrats will have difficulty preserving his power than leaders who gained their rule
through the help of the people because they are surrounded b people who think that they
are the same level. Thus, he would not be able to perform well and command effectively
according to his desire.
4. Machiavelli emphasizes the need for stability in a prince’s principality; at stake is its
preservation. The book was written primarily as a guide for the prince to maintain his power
and only secondarily as a guide for maintaining the principality.The theories expressed in
The Prince describe methods that an aspiring prince can use to acquire the throne, or an
existing prince can use to maintain his reign. According to Machiavelli, the greatest moral
good is a virtuous and stable state, and actions to protect the country are therefore justified
even if they are cruel.Machiavelli strongly suggests, however, that the prince must not be
hated. He states, "...a wise prince should establish himself on that which is his own control
and not in that of others; he must endeavor to avoid hatred, as is noted."
5. NO
6. NO
7. Machiavelli’s ideal implies that leaders must be realistic and practical. Leaders
therefore need to be bad if and when it is necessary for him to do so even if it
means he will be hated by the people. As Machiavelli puts it, “it is better to be
feared then to be loved.” Another implication that can be drawn from
Machiavelli’s ideals is that leaders must be mindful of his/her capacity and ability.
 Leaders must therefore need the three principles. The La Fortuna, La Virtud and
La Necessitu.

THOMAS HOBBES

1. To provide an explanation for human behaviour and its effect in the conduct of building a
just and humane civil society. Hobbes deconstructed the political ideology upon which the
foundation for the society in which he lived was constructed.
2. What is the role of the people in building a just and humane society? What is the best form
of government?
3. Hobbes’s philosophy posited that the state was a superstructure, a composite organism
made up of many individual parts. Those constituent parts were its inhabitants, its citizens,
who were bound together by aspects of shared identity and the agreement about their
commonalities. Hobbes viewed this organism of the state as being unstable and highly
vulnerable in its native state, however.
4. Thomas Hobbes brought to an end to his discourse of civil and ecclesiastical government,
occasioned by the disorders of the present time, without partiality, without application, and
without other design than to set before men's eyes the mutual relation between protection
and obedience; of which the condition of human nature, and the laws divine, both natural
and positive, require an inviolable observation. And though in the revolution of states there
can be no very good constellation for truths of this nature to be born under. For such truth
as opposite no man's profit nor pleasure is to all men welcome.
5. No
6. No
7. The ideal of Thomas Hobbes implies that each of the human beings in the society has a role
which creates the society itself. However, within these roles is a conflict within the human
being’s state of nature. Thus, Hobbes suggests that in order for people to agree among
themselves and live peacefully in the society, there is a need for the social contract. The
 social contract must then be governed by and through the Monarch, an ideal type of
government Hobbes suggested in His work.

JOHN LOCKE

1. The First Treatise is a criticism of Robert Filmer’s Patriarcha, which argues in support of the
divine right of kings. The Second Treatise is Locke’s proposed solution to the political
upheaval in England and in other modern countries.
2. What is the purpose of the government?
3. According to John Locke, governments are formed through the consent of the people being
governed. These political entities primarily exist to preserve the fundamental rights of the
people and to promote the general welfare of the public. John Locke believed that social
contract occurred when men would transfer some or all of their rights to the government in
order to ensure a comfortable living. Locke felt that social contract was part of a man's
promise for freedom.
4. According to Locke, people have the right to dissolve their government, if that government
ceases to work solely in their best interest. The government has no sovereignty of its own--
it exists to serve the people. To sum up, Locke's model consists of a civil state, built upon
the natural rights common to a people who need and welcome an executive power to
protect their property and liberties; the government exists for the people's benefit and can
be replaced or overthrown if it ceases to function toward that primary end.
5. No
6. No
7. Locke's fundamental argument is that people are equal and invested with natural rights in a
state of nature in which they live free from outside rule. In the state of nature, natural law
governs behavior, and each person has license to execute that law against someone who
wrongs them by infringing on their rights. People take what they need from the earth, but
just enough to cover their needs. Eventually, people begin to trade their excess goods with
each other, until they develop a common currency for barter, or money. It implies then that
money eliminates limits on the amount of property they can obtain (unlike food, money
does not spoil), and they begin to gather estates around themselves and their families.