Sovereignty And The Sword: Harrington, Hobbes, And Mixed Government In The English Civil Wars University Press Scholarship Online

This book places the political thought of mid-seventeenth-century England within the context of the English civil wars and offers fresh insights into the principles on which two of the great figures of political thought, Thomas Hobbes and James Harrington, constructed their main arguments. Arihiro Fukuda shows Harrington to have been, no less than Hobbes, a theorist of absolute sovereignty. But where Hobbes repudiated the mixed governments of classical antiquity, Harrington was convinced that mixed government, far from being the enemy of absolute sovereignty, was its essential foundation. Fukuda shows how Harrington, in recasting Hobbes's thought, achieved an originality and profundity as striking as his rivals. Hobbes And Harrington Are Known Today As Spokesmen Of Opposite Positions. Yet, Behind Their Disagreements, Argues Fukuda, There Lay A Common Perspective. For Both Writers, The Primary Aim Was The Restoration Of Peace And Order To A Divided Land. 1. Introduction: A New Era In English Political Theory -- 2. The New English Theory Of Mixed Government, 1642-1644: Balance, Authority, Conscience -- 3. Thomas Hobbes's Theory Of Sovereignty, 1640-1647: Private Judgement, Fear, Covenant -- 4. Leviathan And The English Republic, 1649-1653: Sword, Victory, Conquest -- 5. The Challenge Of James Harrington, 1653-1656: Fear, Necessity, Equality -- 6. Harrington's Theory Of Balanced Sovereignty, 1656-1660 (i): Interest, Authority, Equality -- 7. Harrington's Theory Of Balanced Sovereignty, 1656-1660 (ii): Interest, Sovereignty, Mixed Government -- 8. The End Of The Era, 1660-1683: Balance, Nobility, Resistance -- App. A. Religion And Sovereignty In Hobbes And Harrington. Arihiro Fukuda. Includes Bibliographical References And Index.