History of political thought


The history of political thought dates back to antiquity while the history of the world and thus the history of political thinking by man stretches up through the Medieval period and the Renaissance. In the Age of Enlightenment, political entities expanded from basic systems of self-governance and monarchy to the complex democratic and communist systems that exist of the Industrialized and the Modern Era. In parallel, political systems have expanded from vaguely defined frontier-type boundaries, to the definite boundaries existing today. The history of political thought has often overlapped with the history of philosophy.

Ancient political thought

The origins of political thought are in ancient China and Greece. Starting in approximately 600 BCE, thinkers in these societies began to consider questions of how to organize societies, as part of their more broad considerations of how ethics and how to live the good life.
From around 770 BCE, China began to experience a time of peace and prosperity, which allowed the rise of the so-called Hundred Schools of Thought, the most influential of which was that of Confucius. His thinking was firmly based in traditional Chinese worldview, which saw the values of loyalty, duty, and respect as paramount. He believed that people and society can be improved by reciprocal treatment through moral example set by a leader embodying these virtues, as society would then respond to such good leaders by emulating them. He encapsulated this by saying that:
For this to work, however, society had to be ordered hierarchically, modeled after the patriarchal family. and headed by an absolute sovereign. However, Confucius also believed the state should employ a meritocratic class of administrators and advisers, recruited by civil service exams. Among later Chinese thinkers, Mozi agreed with his ideas of meritocracy and leading by example, but opposed the family-model of governance with the belief that it would be nepotistic. Mencius, however, championed his ideas later on. An alternative Chinese philosophy called Legalism argued that instead of virtue, authoritarian discipline was crucial for the governance of the state.
In fifth-century Athens, an intellectual golden age was also flourishing. Despite the Athenian democracy in which Plato had the freedom to develop his ideas, he nevertheless despised democracy, alongside all other then existing form of government. This was because Plato believed that the state should promote the virtues necessary for good living, but thought the existing political arrangements of monarchy, oligarchy, and democracy all promoted the interests of the people in power, who were ignorant of those virtues, and instead would only pursue honour and wealth, leading to conflict and injustice. To correct this, Plato proposed in the Republic for philosopher kings, who would know how to achieve the good life, to be in power instead.
In India, Chanakya offered in Arthashastra practical advice on how to run government. He also believed that virtue in the leader and the merit of their advisers were important. Furthermore, he also argued that the end justifies the means, and that after using the best means available to defeat their enemies, rulers should "substitute virtues for the defeated enemy's vices, and where the enemy was good shall be twice as good".

Post-classical political thought

Europe

The early Christian philosophy of Augustine of Hippo was by and large a rewrite of Plato in a Christian context. The main change that Christian thought brought was to moderate the Stoicism and theory of justice of the Roman world, and emphasize the role of the state in applying mercy as a moral example. Augustine also preached that one was not a member of his or her city, but was either a citizen of the City of God or the City of Man. Augustine's City of God is an influential work of this period that refuted the thesis, after the First Sack of Rome, that the Christian view could be realized on Earth at all – a view many Christian Romans held.
Medieval political philosophy in Europe was heavily influenced by Christian thinking. It had much in common with the Islamic thinking in that the Roman Catholics also subordinated philosophy to theology. Perhaps the most influential political philosopher of medieval Europe was St. Thomas Aquinas who helped reintroduce Aristotle's works, which had only been preserved by the Muslims, along with the commentaries of Averroes. Aquinas's use of them set the agenda for scholastic political philosophy, which dominated European thought for centuries.
In 1215, the Magna Carta introduced the concept of constitutional rights, such as habeas corpus.

Islamic World

The rise of Islam, based on both the Qur'an and Muhammad, strongly altered the power balances and perceptions of origin of power in the Mediterranean region. Early Islamic philosophy emphasized an inexorable link between science and religion, and the process of ijtihad to find truth - in effect all philosophy was "political" as it had real implications for governance. This view was challenged by the Mutazilite philosophers, who held a more Greek view and were supported by secular aristocracy who sought freedom of action independent of the Caliphate. By the late medieval period, however, the Asharite view of Islam had in general triumphed.
Islamic political philosophy, was, indeed, rooted in the very sources of Islam, i.e. the Qur'an and the Sunnah, the words and practices of Muhammad. However, in the Western thought, it is generally supposed that it was a specific area peculiar merely to the great philosophers of Islam: al-Kindi, al-Farabi, İbn Sina, Ibn Bajjah, Ibn Rushd, and Ibn Khaldun. The political conceptions of Islam such as kudrah, sultan, ummah, simaa -and even the "core" terms of the Qur'an, i.e. ibada, din, rab and ilah- is taken as the basis of an analysis. Hence, not only the ideas of the Muslim political philosophers but also many other jurists and ulama posed political ideas and theories. For example, the ideas of the Khawarij in the very early years of Islamic history on Khilafa and Ummah, or that of Shia Islam on the concept of Imamah are considered proofs of political thought. The clashes between the Ehl-i Sunna and Shia in the 7th and 8th centuries had a genuine political character.
The 14th century Arab scholar Ibn Khaldun is considered one of the greatest political theorists. The British philosopher-anthropologist Ernest Gellner considered Ibn Khaldun's definition of government, "an institution which prevents injustice other than such as it commits itself", the best in the history of political theory.

Modern political thought

Renaissance

During the Renaissance secular political philosophy began to emerge after about a century of theological political thought in Europe. One of the most influential works during this burgeoning period was Niccolò Machiavelli's The Prince, written between 1511–12 and published in 1532, after Machiavelli's death. That work, as well as The Discourses, a rigorous analysis of the classical period, did much to influence modern political thought in the West. A minority could interpret The Prince as a satire meant to give the Medici after their recapture of Florence and their subsequent expulsion of Machiavelli from Florence. Though the work was written for the di Medici family in order to perhaps influence them to free him from exile, Machiavelli supported the Republic of Florence rather than the oligarchy of the di Medici family. At any rate, Machiavelli presents a and somewhat consequentialist view of politics, whereby good and evil are mere means used to bring about an end, i.e. the maintenance of political authority. Thomas Hobbes, well known for his theory of the social contract, goes on to expand this view at the start of the 17th century during the English Renaissance.
John Locke in particular exemplified this new age of political theory with his work Two Treatises of Government. In it Locke proposes a state of nature theory that directly complements his conception of how political development occurs and how it can be founded through contractual obligation. Locke stood to refute Sir Robert Filmer's paternally founded political theory in favor of a natural system based on nature in a particular given system.

Age of Enlightenment

During the Enlightenment period, new theories about what the human was and is and about the definition of reality and the way it was perceived, along with the discovery of other societies in the Americas, and the changing needs of political societies led to new questions and insights by such thinkers as Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Montesquieu and John Locke.
These theorists were driven by two basic questions: one, by what right or need do people form states; and two, what the best form for a state could be. These fundamental questions involved a conceptual distinction between the concepts of "state" and "government." It was decided that "state" would refer to a set of enduring institutions through which power would be distributed and its use justified. The term "government" would refer to a specific group of people who occupied, and indeed still occupy the institutions of the state, and create the laws and ordinances by which the people, themselves included, would be bound. This conceptual distinction continues to operate in political science, although some political scientists, philosophers, historians and cultural anthropologists have argued that most political action in any given society occurs outside of its state, and that there are societies that are not organized into states which nevertheless must be considered in political terms.
Political and economic relations were drastically influenced by these theories as the concept of the guild was subordinated to the theory of free trade, and Roman Catholic dominance of theology was increasingly challenged by Protestant churches subordinate to each nation-state, which also preached in the vulgar or native language of each region. These ideas did not spread to cultures outside of Europe until considerably later.

Industrialization

The Industrial Revolution changed societies dramatically. As a consequence, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels became the first theorists of Marxism and Communism. Their ideas were further developed by Vladimir Lenin, leading to the ideology of Marxism–Leninism practiced in the Soviet Union and later allied countries. During the Cold War, this line of thought would further result in Maoism, Ho Chi Minh Thought, Hoxhaism, Juche, and Titoism.
As industrialisation enabled the rise of colonialism, this was accompanied by the ideology of Imperialism. Later, anti-imperialist ideologies would counter this, such as Gandhism and Nasserism.