Lawson's Politica is a systematic treatise on politics in church and state and is arguably the most significant work of political theory to have been printed during the Restoration crisis of 1659-60. It was widely discussed during the seventeenth century and particularly the revolution of 1688-9. This new modern edition is based on, and corrects the first printed editions of 1660 and 1689, and contains an extensive introduction and notes designed to make this significant work accessible to both students and specialists.

This volume is a sequel to the author's earlier work on the development of European theories of sovereignity and constitutionalism. Professor Franklin here explains a major innovation associated with the English Civil Wars. It was only now, he shows, that there finally emerged a theory of sovereignity and resistance that was fully compatible with a mixed constitution. The new conception of resistance in a mixed constitution was to enter the main tradition via Locke, who stood alone among major writers of the 1680s in holding that the effect of tyranny by any constituted power, even by the King alone, was entire dissolution of the government and the reversion of power to the general community. When this familiar position is read against the background of preceding constitutionalist theory, the Second Treatise reveals a new dimension of novelty and historical significance.

Few authors of the Latin Middle Ages have been the subject of so much attention as Marsilius of Padua (c. 1275-1342/43). Known primarily for his Defensor pacis, Marsilius quickly garnered for himself the reputation of being a heretic as well as a schismatic. At the same time, however, it became evident that he was perhaps one of the brightest - if not most dangerous - thinkers of the fourteenth century. The political ideas and activities of Marsilius of Padua have engendered a substantial literature and numerous debates. The present volume serves as a much needed guide to the life and works of the Paduan thinker. It provides readers with a scholarly treatment and evaluation of the various interpretative schools and debates concerning Marsilus based on the latest relevant research. As such, the present volume will appeal to scholars interested in the importance and influence of one of the greatest authors of the European Middle Ages. Contributors include: Gerson Moreno-Riaño, Cary J. Nederman, Frank Godthardt, William Courtenay, Michael Sweeney, Gianluca Briguglia, Takashi Shogimen, Roberto Lambertini, Bettina Koch, and Thomas Izbicki.

First Published in 1969. Hobbes is universally accorded a prominent place in the history of political thought. His fame is not merely academic: he is well known among all who are interested in political ideas. The author here dissects and discusses the view of Hobbes in the eyes of his many critics with emphasis on Whitehall's eventual indictment which had no quarter given. This title makes good reading for those who enjoy the literature of the seventeenth century, as well as for those concerned mainly with political ideas.

Deciding what is and what is not political is a fraught, perhaps intractably opaque matter. Just who decides the question; on what grounds; to what ends—these seem like properly political questions themselves. Deciding what is political and what is not can serve to contain and restrain struggles, make existing power relations at once self-evident and opaque, and blur the possibility of reimagining them differently. Political Concepts seeks to revive our common political vocabulary—both everyday and academic—and to do so critically. Its entries take the form of essays in which each contributor presents her or his own original reflection on a concept posed in the traditional Socratic question format “What is X?” and asks what sort of work a rethinking of that concept can do for us now. The explicitness of a radical questioning of this kind gives authors both the freedom and the authority to engage, intervene in, critique, and transform the conceptual terrain they have inherited. Each entry, either implicitly or explicitly, attempts to re-open the question “What is political thinking?” Each is an effort to reinvent political writing. In this setting the political as such may be understood as a property, a field of interest, a dimension of human existence, a set of practices, or a kind of event. Political Concepts does not stand upon a decided concept of the political but returns in practice and in concern to the question “What is the political?” by submitting the question to a field of plural contention. The concepts collected in Political Concepts are “Arche” (Stathis Gourgouris), “Blood” (Gil Anidjar), “Colony” (Ann Laura Stoler), “Concept” (Adi Ophir), “Constituent Power” (Andreas Kalyvas), “Development” (Gayatri Spivak), “Exploitation” (Étienne Balibar), “Federation” (Jean Cohen), “Identity” (Akeel Bilgrami), “Rule of Law” (J. M. Bernstein), “Sexual Difference” (Joan Copjec), and “Translation” (Jacques Lezra)

This book examines the Whig theory of resistance that emerged from the Revolution of 1688 in England, and presents an important challenge to the received opinion of Whig thought as confused and as inferior to the revolutionary principles set forth by John Locke. While a wealth of Whig literature is analyzed, Rudolph focuses upon the work of James Tyrrell, presenting the first full-length study of this seminal Whig theorist, and friend and colleague of John Locke. This book provides a compelling argument for the importance of Whig political thought for the history of liberalism.