Power, Liberty, and the Modern State
Power, Liberty, and the Modern State
From Machiavelli's cold eye on power to constitutions, democracy, liberty, and radical critique.
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Step 1 · Still to readThe Prince
Machiavelli describes power as it actually works, not as it ought to be.
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Step 2 · Still to readDiscourses on Livy
The same Machiavelli now turns to Rome and asks how a free republic endures.
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Step 3 · Still to readSecond Treatise of Government
Locke shifts the ground of power: authority rests on the consent of the governed.
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Step 4 · Still to readThe Social Contract
Rousseau radicalizes the idea: freedom through the 'general will'.
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Step 5 · Still to readThe Federalist Papers
The Federalist Papers turn theory into design: power must check power.
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Step 6 · Still to readDemocracy in America
Tocqueville reads democracy as a culture: not only laws, but habits shape liberty.
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Step 7 · Still to readOn Liberty
Mill defends the individual against the majority: where lies the limit of interference?
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Step 8 · Still to readThe Communist Manifesto
Marx and Engels invert the question: not how to govern, but who owns the order.