Who Should Rule?
This thinker argues that political authority should rest with philosopher-rulers because knowledge of the Good provides a better basis for rule than popular opinion.
Who is Plato?
Augustine calls this the limited political condition that allows people to live, work, raise families, worship, and pursue ordinary goods even in an imperfect society.
What is earthly peace?
Thucydides identifies these three motives as recurring drivers of political action by states and leaders.
What are fear, honor, and interest?
For Luther, this inward commitment cannot be created by political force, even when rulers can compel outward conformity.
What is genuine faith?
Luther’s condemnation of the German Peasants’ War reflects his belief that legitimate grievances do not automatically justify this form of political action.
What is rebellion?
He compared himself to a gadfly whose persistent questioning awakened Athens from complacency and exposed false claims to wisdom.
Who is Socrates?
For this thinker, free political life differs from monarchy in that citizens live under public law rather than the arbitrary will of a master.
Who is Herodotus?
Aquinas says a genuine rule must be rational, issued by legitimate authority, publicly communicated, and directed toward public welfare. He describes it as this kind of rule.
What is an ordinance of reason?
Plato’s effort to eliminate the major sources of faction and design political conflict out of the city is what Alan Ryan calls this.
What is antipolitics?
Luther’s early model of refusing an immoral command, accepting the penalty, and stopping short of rebellion.
What is passive disobedience?
Müntzer grounded legitimate political action in this community of spiritually awakened believers rather than in inherited rulers alone.
What is the godly community?
He argued that a substantial middle class promotes political stability because citizens of moderate means are less likely to seek domination or revolution.
Who is Aristotle?
This thinker rejects the idea that citizenship means merely being governed. A genuine citizen should be able to both govern others and accept lawful rule in return.
Who is Aristotle?
Aristotle says monarchy, aristocracy, and constitutional government become corrupt when rulers stop serving the whole community and instead pursue this.
What is sectional advantage?
Augustine uses this idea to describe the recurring political impulse by which rulers and nations seek glory, superiority, and control over others.
What is libido dominandi?
Zwingli’s model in Zurich joined civic government and religious reform into this unified political-religious community.
What is a Christian republic?
Müntzer’s challenge to inherited hierarchy anticipated this idea that political authority can arise from the people rather than simply descend from rulers above them.
What is popular sovereignty?
He warned that excessive democratic freedom can create disorder that allows a demagogue to present himself as a protector and eventually become a tyrant.
Who is Plato?
Rather than entrusting government to a single ruler, class, or majority, this thinker argues that political authority should be distributed among consuls, the Senate, and the people so that each depends on and restrains the others.
Cicero argues that a political community is more than a crowd. It becomes this when its members share interests and agree on the standards that govern their public life.
What is a republic or public partnership?
Polybius argues that kingship can decay into tyranny, aristocracy into oligarchy, and democracy into mob rule, emphasizing this broader pattern of political change.
What is anacyclosis?
In Calvin’s resistance theory, these public officials may lawfully oppose a tyrannical ruler when their office gives them responsibility to restrain him.
Who are lesser magistrates?
Calvin’s effort to oppose tyranny without authorizing private citizens to revolt produced this model of resistance through recognized offices and lawful institutions.
What is constitutional resistance?
Unlike Augustine, he argued that political society is natural to human beings and necessary for cooperation and flourishing, even apart from its role in restraining sin.
Who is Thomas Aquinas?
A constitution may distribute power effectively and still fail if officeholders lack the character needed for public service. This Roman thinker therefore argues that rulers need justice, courage, temperance, prudence, and devotion to the common good.
Who is Cicero?
As consul, Cicero approved executing suspected conspirators without trial, arguing that extraordinary danger justified extraordinary action. This episode illustrates this recurring constitutional problem.
What are emergency powers?
Thucydides shows that a state can increase its security while making rivals feel less secure, prompting them to arm, form alliances, or strike first, highlighting this type of political problem.
What is the security dilemma?
Socrates displayed this principle when he refused the Thirty Tyrants’ command to participate in an unjust arrest, even though the order came from those holding political power.
What is conscientious disobedience?
Müntzer’s politics illustrate this danger: when a movement treats its own convictions as unquestionable revelation and its opponents as enemies of God, violence can come to seem morally purifying rather than politically limited.
What is prophetic certainty?
This Reformation thinker held that Scripture should govern public and private life and that civil magistrates had a responsibility to protect correct worship and suppress practices they regarded as false religion.
Who is Huldrych Zwingli?