Political Science in Credo: 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.

Italian author and statesman, one of the outstanding figures of the Renaissance, b. Florence. Niccolò Machiavelli has exerted an extraordinary influence on modern thought and practice throughout the world. His writings and career are subject to varied interpretations, but the most common have given rise to a word found in most languages, Machiavellianism, suggesting deceit, tyranny, and the dictum that the end justifies the means.

English political philosopher. His greatest work is the Leviathan (1651), which contains his defence of absolute sovereignty. Hobbes was born at Westport (now a part of Malmesbury), Wiltshire on 5 April 1588. He died 4 December 1679 at Hardwick, Derbyshire.

An epistemologist and political philosopher. Locke was born on 29 August 1632 at Wrington, Somerset, into a Puritan family of the minor gentry. The English philosopher who justified the overthrow of royal power in England and the creation of a system based on the power of parliament.

Hume was born David Home on 7 May 1711 in Edinburgh, and died there on 25 August 1776. 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). He was one of the founders of the International Workingmen's Association (First International) (1864).

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.