Leviathan

Thomas Hobbes’s 1651 work argues that people escape violent insecurity by authorizing an undivided sovereign to secure civil peace.

State of nature: A hypothetical condition without political authority or enforceable common rules. Hobbes uses this condition to show why people seek a power capable of keeping peace.
Authorization: The act of accepting another's actions as one's own within a defined relationship. Individuals authorize the sovereign, making its public acts attributable to them.
English Civil War: A series of armed conflicts in England from 1642 to 1651 over political and religious authority. The conflict supplied a vivid example of the civil disorder Hobbes sought to prevent.
Divine right of kings: The doctrine that a monarch's authority is granted directly by God. Hobbes grounds sovereignty in human authorization rather than a monarch's divine appointment.
Laws of nature: Rational principles directing people toward peace and mutual restraint. They identify peace as a rational aim, but cannot secure it without enforcement.
Representation: A relationship in which an actor speaks or acts on behalf of another. Hobbes makes the sovereign the representative person who unifies the multitude.
Thomas Hobbes: An English philosopher whose political theory defended strong sovereign authority. He wrote Leviathan and developed its account of human nature and political order.
Popular sovereignty: The principle that political authority ultimately belongs to the people. Hobbes begins with popular authorization but places ongoing power in an undivided sovereign.
Social contract: An agreement through which people establish political authority and obligations. Hobbes explains sovereignty as arising when individuals authorize a common power.
Sovereignty: Supreme political authority within a state. Leviathan argues that effective peace requires sovereign power to be undivided.

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