Political Science: Political Theory

The philosophical questioning of the assumptions underlying political life; for example, the grounds on which an individual is obliged to obey the state. It also attempts to formulate theories of how political institutions can be perfected by the empirical observation of existing institutions.

1469–1527, Italian author and statesman, one of the outstanding figures of the Renaissance, born in Florence.

English political philosopher. His greatest work is the Leviathan (1651), which contains his defence of absolute sovereignty.

The English philosopher (1632–1704) who justified the overthrow of royal power in England and the creation of a system based on the power of parliament.

When David Home (as his name was spelled then) entered the University of Edinburgh in 1723-25, his family expected him to pursue a career in the law. Hume, however, soon turned his attention to philosophy.

British political writer and statesman, born in Dublin, Ireland.

German founder of modern communism, in England from 1849. With Engels, he wrote The Communist Manifesto (1848). He developed his theories of the class struggle and the economics of capitalism in Das Kapital (1867; 1885; 1895).

Italian politician and Marxist theorist: founder (1921) of the Italian Communist party. His important works were written during his imprisonment (1926-37) by the Fascists.