Thucydidic Perspective Of Politics & The State

Thucydides is right when he says that politics is entirely governed by fear, interest and honor, and elegant talk of justice is just talk. This is true not only of Greek society, but the political machinery of many another nations as defined by many of the world’s greatest political and sociology philosophers. Politics might best be defined by the functions it serves. Politics is the dominant ideology and methodology used by the state to preserve and maintain its social order as a whole. Political ideology enables the state to manage conflict as much as it allows the state to strive toward all that is possible in light of its resources and potential. The modern state is designed to enforce norms, arbitrate conflict, plan and protect, and regulate relations with other societies. Central to these functions being successful is some kind of political ideology and authority that is chosen as the best by state leaders to preserve the social order. We will look at different views of politics (i.e., the state ideology) as viewed or promoted by men such as Karl Marx, Thomas Hobbes, Jean Jacques Rousseau, Niccolo Machiavelli, Plato, John Locke and Noam Chomsky in order to attempt an answer to the question of whether or not Thucydides is correct in his political theory.

Thomas Hobbes felt government and politics were imposed on society through a mutual social contract with those governed, those who by entering such a

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of that law in others, as he is persuaded the offense deserves, even with death itself” (Locke 3). Of course, for Locke, this power extended itself to those who governed. The people have the right to participate in the decision-making of politics and to elect or dismiss their leaders. Of course, it is a representative democracy that exists in the U.S., since the people elect representatives who make political decisions allegedly in the interests of those who have elected them. Nonetheless, this form of politics allows for more development of the art of the possible than does a totalitarian one like Hitler’s Nazism, Mussolini’s fascism, or Stalin’s communism which were direct efforts by state authorities to protect self-interests over the interests of the majority cloaked in good-of-the-people rhetoric. Still, our political leaders are often guilty of paying heed to only those well-oiled PAC groups like the NRA and the AMA at the expense of justice for the people (for example, the failure to pass national health care). Perhaps few political or state theorists have ever proposed a view of politics as unique or controversial as that of Niccolo Machiavelli’s. Machiavelli was in complete contrast to traditional political theor
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Approximate Word count = 3096
Approximate Pages = 12 (250 words per page)