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The Prince And The Social Contract

Power and Authority as Viewed by Hobbes and Machiavelli
Many medieval political thinkers observed that power and authority came first from God and then from a social mandate. In Leviathan, Thomas Hobbes proposes that power comes from the social mandate first. (Leviathan, Bk. I, Ch. 18, pp.230) He makes this assertion on the basis that it is within the human nature to secure its life through banding together with others to form a community. Each community, then, is held together by a common desire for protection from the wild while maintaining isolation of the self from others. (Leviathan, Bk. I, Ch. 14, pp.190-94) One person must be able to make decisions on behalf of the community, that person, even if he/she does not enjoy unanimous support, becomes the sovereign. The social status of the sovereign is secondary in importance to the percentage of the population that supports them. Hobbes' concept of authority and power, then, stems from the belief that people have leaders......


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Approximate Word Count: 1926
Approximate Pages: 8 (250 words per double-spaced page)

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