

Despite being a defender of absolute monarchy, Thomas Hobbes has been called the "father of liberalism." After sketching the basis and purpose of liberalism as we find it in John Locke (indisputably a liberal), explain how and to what extent Hobbes's writings make an essential contribution to it.Many contemporary advocates of democracy take the attitude that the cure for the ills of democracy is more democracy.Discuss the meaning of this assertion and explain the attitude that would be taken toward it by two of the following: Aristotle, Rousseau, The Federalist.Keywords: Seneca, Begriffsgeschichte, representation, democracy, sovereignty.Political Theory Sample field Exam Questions


This could also imply that modern liberal democracy’s concept of representation would be closer to Seneca’s monarchical idea, in which absolute sovereignty would guarantee private property, contracts, and a sui iuris apolitical soul. If these readings of Seneca are plausible, genealogies of modern concepts that interpret their emergence as a revolutionary trennung (eg, Schmitt and early Conceptual History) could be facing a problem of oblivion. Thus, in Seneca, there would be a proto-theory of sovereignty and representation, with decisionism as its result. In these interpretations, this Stoic philosopher presents Nero in a depersonalised form., He is not only the sovereign capable of shaping a multitude, representing it in its whole and giving it the character of ‘people’, but also who secures peace and rules with justice. During the Renaissance, De Clementia served as promotion for monarchical forms. The idea put forth by the author of De Clementia would be one of the bases for Bodin’s writings and is also present in Hobbes’ work. Seneca’s figure has been retrieved as relevant to understand the emergence of sovereignty and modern representation.
