22 thinkers, books, and ideas connected to this field.
American entrepreneur, former Coinbase CTO, and author of The Network State — proposing that technology enables new forms of governance beginning with cloud-based communities that acquire physical territory — a highly influential and controversial thinker in the Silicon Valley political economy space.
Italian-American philosopher who has worked on Antonio Negri, Giorgio Agamben, and political philosophy.
Canadian philosopher who is one of the leading figures in communitarianism and has produced major works on the modern self, secular societies, and the politics of recognition.
American political philosopher at Boston College who is a leading interpreter of Rousseau — and whose translations and studies of Rousseau's political works make him one of the most important Rousseau scholars in the Anglophone world.
American software developer and political blogger who wrote under the name Mencius Moldbug — developing neoreactionary (NRx) political theory arguing that democracy is a failing system, that modern Western institutions are controlled by the 'Cathedral' (university-media complex), and that monarchy is preferable to democracy.
Palestinian-American literary critic who founded postcolonial studies with Orientalism — showing how Western knowledge of 'the Orient' was a form of power — and who was the most prominent Palestinian intellectual in the West.
Machiavelli's commissioned history of Florence — from the city's founding through Lorenzo de' Medici's death in 1492 — applying his political analysis to Florentine history and demonstrating through historical narrative how factional conflict and the failure of civic virtue destroyed republican Florence.
Bentham's Fragment on Government (1776) was his first published work, a critique of Blackstone's Commentaries attacking natural rights theory and common law conservatism.
Genevan-French philosopher — author of The Social Contract, Discourse on Inequality, Emile, and Confessions — who created the general will as a political concept, the noble savage as cultural critique, and the first modern autobiography — whose ideas inspired the French Revolution.
American philosopher at Harvard — author of A Theory of Justice (1971) and Political Liberalism — who revived Anglo-American political philosophy and provided the most influential liberal theory of justice in the 20th century.
British philosopher and political economist who refined utilitarianism, developed the harm principle as the foundation of liberal politics, and was an early champion of women's suffrage.
Samuel Francis's posthumously published (2016) major theoretical work extending Burnham's managerial revolution thesis — arguing that American democracy is being displaced by a permanent managerial elite that uses cultural liberalism as its ideological weapon and Middle American workers as its principal opposition.
American philosopher at the University of Chicago Law School who has developed the capabilities approach to justice, written influentially on the role of emotions in ethics, and defended liberal education.
French political philosopher — author of The Spirit of the Laws (1748) — who developed the doctrine of separation of powers, argued that climate affects political systems, and created comparative government as an analytical discipline — whose work directly influenced the US Constitution.
American paleoconservative political theorist who wrote Leviathan and Its Enemies — extending Burnham's managerial revolution thesis to argue that the middle American working class faces permanent subjugation under an alliance of corporate and government managers — and who was fired from the Washington Times for his white nationalist views.
Snyder's account of Russian influence operations and the spread of authoritarian politics in Europe and America — centering on the Russian philosopher Ivan Ilyin as Putin's intellectual inspiration.
English philosopher — author of Leviathan (1651) — who argued that without a sovereign power, life is 'solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short' — and that legitimate government derives from a social contract in which individuals surrender natural freedom for security.
Anglo-American political radical and pamphleteer whose Common Sense made independence comprehensible to ordinary Americans and whose Rights of Man was the defining radical text of the French Revolutionary era.
British-American historian whose Postwar is the definitive history of Europe since 1945, and whose final work Ill Fares the Land is a passionate defense of social democracy against market fundamentalism.
American journalist and political theorist who wrote the most important account of public opinion in modern democracy and ran the most widely syndicated newspaper column in American history.
David Graeber and David Wengrow's revisionist history of human social organization — arguing that prehistory was far more politically diverse than the Rousseau-to-Hobbes spectrum suggests.
Emerging in post‑war Anglo‑American academia, Analytic Philosophy of Law applied rigorous logical scrutiny to legal concepts, shaping contemporary debates over rights, authority, and the nature of law itself.