Political philosophy studies the nature, origin and purpose of government.

FORMS OF GOVERNMENT

The are many forms of government. In a monarchy supreme power is placed in a single person. In an oligarchy, power is placed in the hands of a few people. In an aristocracy rule is placed in the hands of the best qualified people. In a timocracy the power is placed in the hands of the wealthy. In a democracy power is placed in the hands of the people. Which of the above forms is the best? The answer to this question depends on how you view the purpose of a government.

 SOCIAL CONTRACT

This political philosophy was proposed by Thomas Hobbes, an English philosopher (1588-1679). It was further developed by John Locke (1632-1704) and Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778). It was an attempt to answer the question concerning the origin of government. The social contract concept was an attempt to challenge the divine right of kings philosophy which was used by monarchs of the time.

According to this philosophy people in a society made a contract with each other or with a ruler to guarantee them certain needs such as peace, safety and justice. If the ruler did not meet his part of the contract, then the people had a right to select a new ruler. This is the basic philosophy that a democracy is based on.

NATURAL LAW

This philosophy goes as far back as ancient Greece. It is the view that there is a higher law to which specific written laws of a government must be compared. This higher law or natural law, was universally valid and thus applied to all governments. The natural law was known by the use of human reasoning.

JUSTICE

One of the purposes of government is to administer justice among the people. But what is justice? One recent philosopher who has written a very influential book is John Rawls, who wrote A Theory of Justice in 1971. Rawls proposed a theory of what is called "distributive justice". There were three principles that determined justice:

 Back to Home Page