MASTERWORKS OF POLITICAL THEORY Midterm Essay Niccolo Machiavelli, Martin Luther, Thomas Hobbes, and John Locke were four political theorists who shared a like mind in the need for the foundation of government and the extent to which its power and authority should reach. ... Societal order and loyalty to one monarch were almost non-existent as States were constantly under attack by different factions. ... An advocate of physical power, as well as governmental power, Machiavelli stressed the need for virtu, a quality that has been translated to mean "...a union of force and ability...will...

• Word Count: 2524
• Approx Pages: 10
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

Book I of Rousseau's The Social Contract stresses that this contract will sustain liberty and/or freedom more efficiently than the state of nature, thus, paving the way for lawful and sound political power. Rousseau says that lawful political power does not exist in nature. Instead, political power becomes legitimate by the formation of contracts built between the members of society. The only legitimate political authority found in nature is that of the authority that a father holds over his child. ... Therefore, agreement would have to be the only legitimate means by which political auth...

• Word Count: 7115
• Approx Pages: 28
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Book I of Rousseau's The Social Contract stresses that this contract will sustain liberty and/or freedom more efficiently than the state of nature, thus, paving the way for lawful and sound political power. Rousseau says that lawful political power does not exist in nature. Instead, political power becomes legitimate by the formation of contracts built between the members of society. The only legitimate political authority found in nature is that of the authority that a father holds over his child. ... Therefore, agreement would have to be the only legitimate means by which political auth...

• Word Count: 7114
• Approx Pages: 28
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

One of the reasons countries explored and expanded was in order to gain additional natural resources and power. ... Their main goal was to gain land, resources, and most importantly, power. ... In the world Jean-Jacques Rousseau lived in the government was run by the monarch and the nobles. ... Just as nature gives each man an absolute power over all his limbs, the social pact gives the body politic an absolute power over all its members; and it is the same power which, directed by the general will, bears, as I have said, the name of sovereignty."" ... He compares this pact as having power...

• Word Count: 2761
• Approx Pages: 11
• Grade Level: High School