ADVANCED PLACEMENT GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS

1. ADVANCED PLACEMENT GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS POLITICAL PHILOSPHERS

2. Thomas Hobbes(English) • First Scholar of political ideas or political philosopher. Came from a poor family. • Analyzed human nature as basically selfish(as opposed to Confucius) • Theorized that the state of nature was brutal. “Might makes right.” • Ultimately people agreed to trade some individual freedom for order and protection.

3. Thomas Hobbes(English) • This implied agreement is called a Social Contract, but Hobbes did not name it. • Hobbes believed a monarchy was the best government (big surprise, it’s all he knew). • Caught in the instability of The English Civil War he had to flee for his life. • Argued that a revolt against government risks a return to the brutal state of nature. ...in the first place, I put for a general inclination of all mankind, a perpetual and restless desire of power after power, that ceaseth only in death. (Hobbes, Leviathan

4. John Locke • Believed that all people were subject to the natural law given by God. • Believed that all rational minds would come to understand natural law • Natural law encouraged the forming of the social contract. • The purpose of the state was to preserve life, liberty and property.

5. John Locke • Elections replay the social contract • Government power should always be seen as limited • Government abuse of power justifies revolution. • Best known work is Two Treatises on Government (1689) after the Glorious Revolution. • To love truth for truth's sake is the principal part of human perfection in this world, and the seed-plot of all other virtues.” ― John Locke

6. Montesquieu • State needed a constitutional system to limit government power and protect individual rights. • Believed that only a strong class of nobility could check the power of the king and mob. • Argued that government power could be checked by dividing it among three branches: Executive, Legislative and Judicial. • “ In the infancy of societies, the chiefs of state shape its institutions; later the institutions shape the chiefs of state.”

7. Voltaire (French) • Wrote novel, Candide, that challenged the notion that everything happens is for the best. • His satirical works, like Candide, mocked the church and royal court. • His name meant “Lightning”

8. Voltaire • Exiled from France • Admired English ideal of religious liberty and relative freedom of the press. • Advocate of Free speech. “I disapprove of what you say, but will defend to the death your right to say it.” • An excellent example of a philosophe, or thinker of the Enlightenment.

9. Rousseau (French) • Wrote ideas in a book titled Social Contract, but did not invent the concept. • Sovereign power, the power of the state, is the general will of the people and is unlimited. • Trusted that the general will of the people would never move to harm individual citizens. • Critics think he lacked a feel for protecting minority rights. • Also had ideas on many other subjects, including children’s education. (Emile)

10. Rousseau • Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains.” ― Jean-Jacques Rousseau

11. Jefferson (American) • Close follower of Locke. • Probably learned Locke’s ideas from neighbor George Mason who was the author of the Virginia Bill of Rights. • Declaration of Independence contains essential Jefferson beliefs. • All people have God given rights. • People have a duty to revolt when government abuse is intolerable.

12. Jefferson • “A Bill of Rights is what the people are entitled to against every government, and what no just government should refuse, or rest on inference.”