For example, one can consider the following quote from Hobbes: "The right of nature... is the liberty each man hath to use his own power, as he will himself, for the preservation of his own nature; that is to say, of his own life." (Harrison, 2003, p. 67). In other words, Hobbes is saying that every person has within them certain rights, yearnings and liberties; as such, the individual is entitled, and indeed should, pursue their own interests and not be oppressed by rulers. Likewise, rulers should not attempt to force subjects into submission or to rule by intimidation or fear- for Hobbes, power must be earned and maintained through a level of fairness (ogers, et al., 2000). Within this scope, the ruler should be motivated, in Hobbes' opinion, by serving the interests of the people over whom they govern. Likewise, the citizens would be involved in the political…...

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References

Harrison, R. (2003). Hobbes, Locke, and Confusion's Masterpiece: An Examination of Seventeenth-Century Political Philosophy. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Rogers, G.A. & Sorell, T. (Eds.). (2000). Hobbes and History. London: Routledge.

Viroli, M. (1998). Machiavelli. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Sociology-Theories

Thomas Hobbes' Philosophy in the Leviathan
The subject area concerning political theories is both vast and complex. Political theories come in the form of ancient philosophies and new age rhetoric. This discussion will focus on the philosophy of The Leviathan. The Leviathan written by Thomas Hobbes, explores the matter, form, and power of a commonwealth.

In the Leviathan Hobbes discusses the responsibility of the sovereign and the subjects. Hobbes philosophy contended that men must give up their right to govern themselves to a sovereign that would in turn govern the entire commonwealth and maintain peace and order. The purpose of this discussion is to determine why Hobbes insisted that men had to surrender both their wills and their judgments to their sovereign. We will also discuss the social contract theory and the condition of men.

The Social Contract and the condition of men

Thomas Hobbes was a controversial social contract theorist who believed that…...

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Bibliography

Green, Michael. The Social Contract.  http://humanities.uchicago.edu/faculty/mgreen/HobbesW01/Notes/Class/jSocCon.html 

Hobbes, Thomas," Microsoft® Encarta® Online Encyclopedia 2002

© 1997-2002 Microsoft Corporation. All Rights Reserved.http://encarta.msn.com

Hobbes, Thomas. The Leviathan taken from the book Social and Political Philosophy. ed. Sommerville, J. And Santoni E. 1963

Materialism: What does it mean in Marx?
Marx's writings and philosophies extend through various disciplines of history, economics, political science, literature, philosophy, political economy, sociology and even - arguably - mathematics. There are several common strings throughout his writings, many of which we have explored this semester, but a constant beacon, a constant guideline, is Marx's concept of historical materialism.

In historical materialism, economics is key. Economics has always motivated people through history, and can be isolated as an independent force, separate from the religious or ideological.

For Marx, social necessity is uniform: What differs among men is economic power, ability and desire. One gets what one deserves, and in the ideological or religious, this is not necessarily the case, but in the economic, it certainly is, or at least should be.

In "Historical Materialism and the Economics of Karl Marx" by Benedetto Croce, Croce writes, "Historical materialism is what is called a…...

The 'Debates in Political Theory' module serves as an essential component in the study of political science, inviting students to explore the rich variety of arguments that have shaped political thought throughout history. Political theory is not a fixed body of knowledge, but a dynamic field of competing ideas and perspectives. This essay will explore some of the central debates within the module, examining how they contribute to our understanding of political life.
One of the core debates within political theory revolves around the nature and justification of the state. The question of why states should exist and what legitimate power they should possess has been a point of contention among political theorists for centuries. Social contract theorists, such as Thomas Hobbes (1651), argued that the state arises from a contract where individuals consent to surrender some of their freedoms in exchange for security and order. Conversely, anarchist theorists, such as…...

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References

Hobbes, T. (1651). Leviathan.

Proudhon, P.-J. (1840). What is property?

Plato. (1992). The Republic.

Mill, J. S. (1859). On Liberty.

Gorgias, Plato addresses the Sophists and shows Socrates facing off against several of them in a discussion of justice. As can be seen from this dialogue, different Sophists taught somewhat different doctrines. In general, though, the Sophists considered the nature of law and whether law could be viewed as something objective, a scientific certainty to be applied to the world. Essentially, the Sophists found that there was no way to know whether there could be such a law or not and that therefore there was no reason to seek it. Later Sophists argued that there is no real "justice" or "right" and that these are only names applied to local and changing conventions. They further argued that the only real authority in the world is force. Thus the law is what can be imposed by force in a given society, which is the position Callicles takes in this dialogue.…...

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Reference

Plato (1987). Gorgias (tr. D.J. Zeyl). Indianapolis: Hackett.

Justice, Gender, And the Family
Much of what needs to be done to end the inequalities of gender, and to work in the direction of ending gender itself, will also help equalize opportunity from one family to another" (Okin, 17). Therein lies the central message that Okin attempts to convey within her book, Justice, Gender, and the Family. Through her analysis of contemporary theories of justice, and a discussion of the inequalities that are inherent to gender-based marriage and family, Okin claims that socially constructed, and maintained, injustice within the private sphere results in American women being equally repressed within the public sphere. However laudable these intentions and claims may be, Okin ultimately fails to provide the necessary empirical evidence to support and validate her claims. Justice, Gender, and the Family, therefore, emerges as a valuable commentary on present social institutions and a work of commendable moral sentiment, but contributes little…...

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Works Cited

Okin, Susan Moller. Justice, Gender, and the Family. Basic Books: New York, 1989.

Social and Political History
How do the functionalist and conflict theories relate to the conceptualizations of government and sovereignty presented by Heywood? How much is enough government? What level of government do we need to get our collective business done? How much sovereignty is appropriate for the American government to have, particularly in view of terrorist threats in the post 9/11 environment? When does government and sovereignty interfere with the full functioning of individuals in a free society? When and how might government be used to favor particular groups within the social order at the expense of others? How might this kind of favoritism be covered up? How does politics reflect, magnify and sometimes even hid social conflict?

Answer:

The social or "conflict" theory is one that is based on "how society motivates people and places in their proper position in the stratification process. The political or "functionalist" theory focuses on individuals need…...

Clash of Civilizations by Samuel Huntington
Huntington wrote a paper in 1992 that set the stage for a new era in political discourse. In this article, Huntington makes the argument that the end of the cold war has entered in a new period in which ideological or economic clashes will not be the focus rather cultural conflict will set the stage for later generations. Huntington points specifically eight civilizations that are potentially at the risk of clashing; they are the estern, Slavic-Orthodox, Latin America, Islamic, African, Hindus, Buddhist, Confucians and Japanese civilizations. He states (Huntington, 1993)

orld politics is entering a new phase, and intellectuals have not hesitated to proliferate visions of what it will be -- the end of history, the return of traditional rivalries between nation states, and the decline of the nation state from the conflicting pulls of tribalism and globalism, among others. Each of these visions catches aspects…...

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Works Cited

Huntington, S. (1993). The Clash of Civilizations? Retrieved from Foreign Affairs:  http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/48950/samuel-p-huntington/the-clash-of-civilizations

Medieval Political Thought
How did Augustine of Hippo's and Thomas Aquinas' views of the role of human free will in the process of salvation shape their different views of political theory?

For Augustine, there could be two cities -- the City of Man, which would essentially be a society without grace or goodness -- and the City of God, which would be a society that conformed to the will of God, participated with grace, and worked to perfect itself in accordance with the Commandments of God. One would be an imperfect society (the former) and the other would be a perfect society. Essentially, the City of Man is a system in which all endeavors are geared towards earthly happiness whereas in the City of God, endeavors are geared towards a spiritual happiness with God, enjoyed fully in the next life if one is good and dies in the state of grace with…...

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Bibliography

Aquinas, Commentary on Nichomachean Ethics. Dumb Ox Books, 1993.

Aquinas. Commentary on the Politics. IN: Hackett, 2007.

Aquinas, Notes

Augustine. City of God, transl. Marcus Dods. Hendrickston, 2009.

Marx further included that finally the biased behavior of the working class will end this dictatorship period, and a class less society will establish. He believed that for the formation of this society people need to launch an organized movement against the dictatorship and only a successful revolution would lead to the formation of society of "Communism" (Skoble, 2007).

When we talk about the political philosophy, we can observe that both John Locke and Karl Marx are in favor of the idea that when there is a need of change then an organized revolution is compulsory. People cannot get their rights until they demand for it because it's natural thing that you need to raise your voice in order to get your right otherwise other will keep it as their own possession.

The point of differ come when we talk about the scenario in which both of them forwarded their theories. Karl…...

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References

Riemer, N., & Simon, D. (1997). The New World of Politics: An Introduction to Political Science. San Diego: Collegiate Press.

Skoble. (2007). Political Philosophy: Essential Selections. London: Pearson Education India.

Tully, J. (1993). An Approach to Political Philosophy: Locke in Contexts. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press.

Political and eligious Boundaries
Byzantium historically was the eastern side of the oman Empire that was the result of the religious, political and cultural schism that occurred between East and West in the 2nd Century AD. The city of Byzantium, or Constantinople, was located in a major strategic trading area between the Adriatic, Black and Mediterranean Seas. As the Western oman Empire declined, the "New ome," or Constantinople, became a blend of cultures and viable for about a millennium. Most scholars agree that it was the only long-term stable state in Europe that protected most of Western Europe from the emerging Islamic Empire. It was the most advanced economy in the Mediterranean area until the enaissance, with trading networks that extended through most of Eurasia and North Africa, as well as the beginning of the Silk oad. Without this economic power, it is unlikely that there would have been funding for…...

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REFERENCES

Dursteler, E. (2006). Venetians in Constantinople: Nation, Identity, and Coexistence in the Early Modern Mediterranean. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.

Jacoby, D. (2007). Review of Venetians in Constantinople. The Sixteenth Century Journal. 38 (4): 1156-7.

King, M. (2007). Review of Venetians in Constantinople. Renaissance Quarterly. 60 (1): 155-6.

See: Diamond, J. (2011). Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed: Revised. New York: Penguin Books; Huntington, S. (2011). Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order. New York: Simon and Schuster.

This includes previously mentioned measures such as increased governmental spending, directing funds towards education and health sectors etc.
Referring to Liberalism, we should first of all point out that liberalism does not necessarily limit its perceptions only to economic equality, as is the case with Socialism, but it extends its beliefs to the sector of civil and individual equality. This means that liberalism has always found itself as a promoter of human rights, as a sustainer of political freedom and the right to self - determination.

Going forth from these social and political perceptions, the social equality that liberalism promotes naturally leads to a policy of tolerance at a societal level. Liberal governances are generally know to be tolerant in terms of rights for social or religious minorities.

On the other hand, in terms of economic policies, liberalism promotes equality rather through the laissez-faire philosophy, through the capacity of the individuals to…...

Theory vs. Ideology
What is ideology?

Ideology is a belief system that supports and promotes personal or a group's social or religious agenda. In some cases its nature will be obvious to most people, but in other cases an ideology will be disguised as scientific fact based on nonexistent or reinterpreted empirical evidence. Ideologies are invariably supported by personally- or collectively-held religious or political beliefs, rather than extant empirical evidence or objective observation. Concepts within the ideology are typically framed in a black and white manner, such as right vs. wrong, just vs. unjust, and Evil Empire vs. God's Country. The use of such terminology has the effect of erasing the inherent complexity common to most social issues. From the perspective of a social scientist the most important characteristic is that ideologies are refractory to scientific inquiry and may go so far as to attack opposing beliefs to preserve its existence. Another…...

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Bibliography

Cusac, Anne-Marie (2009). Cruel and Unusual: The Culture of Punishment in America. New Haven: Yale University Press.

Political Psychology
Discuss how the politics - is - complicated that model is different from symbolic racism in terms of the outcomes these forms of racism produce. Use two examples to substantiate your arguments.

In many democracies, one of the core principals is respecting the rights of everyone. This is in spite of race, income or ethnicity in determining opportunities and how an individual is living their life. On the surface, this is the ideal of all democracies, yet underneath it all there are various challenges. This is because there are a wide variety of political forces that will have an impact on the forms of racism that are produced.

One way to understand these different views are with the politics -- is -- complicated model. This is when someone will base their beliefs about racism and equality on other political factors. The objectives with this kind of philosophy are to see the…...

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Bibliography

Cashmore, E. (2001). Symbolic Racism. London: Sage.

Cottam, M. (2010). Introduction to Political Philosophy. New York, NY: Psychology Press.

Freeman, D. (2000). The Jim Crow Laws and Racism. New York, NY: Enslow Publishers.

According to this source, this development has been conditioned by the incorporation of the region into the capitalist mode of production for the exploitation of Latin America's resources and the negative implications linger today. To many, globalization and neoliberalism are the contemporary disguises for continued colonialism in Latin America.
The negative impacts of colonization alongside the narrow Western and U.S. understanding of the unique situations it has caused in developing countries play a very large part in limiting political and economic development. it's difficult to move forward when the developing countries do not see meaningful change in store for them.

ibliography

Chiriyankandath, J. Colonialism and post-colonial development. http://74.125.155.132/search?q=cache:xcZP_4GcDIYJ:www.oup.com/uk/orc/bin/9780199296088/burnell_ch02.pdf+Latin+America+post-colonial+development&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

Comparative politics. http://www.scribd.com/doc/5062437/Political-Diversity-Within-Developing-World

Dependency Theory & Latin America. http://www.*****/viewpaper/1702654.html...

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Bibliography

Chiriyankandath, J. Colonialism and post-colonial development. http://74.125.155.132/search?q=cache:xcZP_4GcDIYJ:www.oup.com/uk/orc/bin/9780199296088/burnell_ch02.pdf+Latin+America+post-colonial+development&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

Comparative politics.  http://www.scribd.com/doc/5062437/Political-Diversity-Within-Developing-World 

Dependency Theory & Latin America. http://www.*****/viewpaper/1702654.html

1. The Role of Emotions in Political Decision Making: Exploring how emotions influence political beliefs and actions, and whether they should be considered in political theory.

2. The Impact of Technology on Political Communication: Analyzing how social media and other digital platforms have changed political discourse and debate in the modern age.

3. Intersectionality in Political Theory: Examining how issues of race, gender, and class intersect in political theory and shape debates on social justice and equality.

4. The Ethics of Political Violence: Discussing the moral implications of using violence as a political tool and when it may be justified.

5. Post-Colonial Perspectives in....

Title: Navigating the Crossroads of Authority: Exploring the Legitimacy and Limits of Power in Political Theory

Introduction:
At the crux of political theory lies the intricate interplay between authority and power, a dynamic relationship that has sparked debates and shaped paradigms for centuries. This essay delves into the multifaceted concept of legitimacy, interrogating the foundations of authority and the boundaries of power. Through a comprehensive analysis of historical and contemporary perspectives, we will explore the challenges and complexities of legitimizing power, the tensions between various sources of authority, and the implications for political practice and social justice.

1. The Sources and Foundations of....

1. The role of governance in promoting social justice and equality
2. The impact of partisan politics on government efficiency and effectiveness
3. The concept of power and its implications for political theory
4. The role of political ideology in shaping policy decisions
5. The relationship between democracy and human rights in political theory
6. The influence of globalism on the future of political theory
7. The changing role of the state in a globalized world
8. The intersection of politics and ethics in political theory
9. The challenges of implementing political theory in practice
10. The role of political institutions in promoting stability and democracy
11. The concept of....

1. The Concept of Justice in Rawls and Nozick's Political Theory:
- Analyze and compare John Rawls' and Robert Nozick's theories of justice.
- Discuss the implications of their views on social and economic equality.
- Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of their respective arguments.


2. Utilitarianism vs. Deontology: A Comparative Analysis:
- Compare and contrast the ethical theories of utilitarianism and deontology.
- Explore the strengths and weaknesses of each theory in terms of their application to political decision-making.
- Discuss the relevance of these theories in contemporary political debates.


3. The Legitimacy of Political Authority:
- Examine different theories of....