GLOSSARY OF KEY POLITICAL THINKERS
Theodor Adorno (1903–69) A German philosopher, sociologist and musicologist, Adorno was a leading member of the Frankfurt School of critical theory. His best-known works include The Authoritarian Personality (1950), and Minima Moralia (1951).
Thomas Aquinas (1224–74) An Italian Dominican monk, theologian and philosopher, Aquinas argued that reason and faith are compatible and explored the relationship between human law and God’s natural law. His best-known work is Summa Theologiae, begun in 1265.
Hannah Arendt (1906–75) A German political theorist and philosopher, Arendt wrote widely on issues such as the nature of modern mass society and the importance of political action in human life. Her best-known works include The Origins of Totalitarianism (1951) and The Human Condition (1958).
Aristotle (384–322 BCE) A Greek philosopher, Aristotle’s work ranged over physics, metaphysics, astronomy, meteorology, biology, ethics and politics; it became the foundation of Islamic philosophy and was later incorporated into Christian theology. His best known political work is Politics.
Augustine of Hippo (354–430) A theologian and political philosopher, Augustine developed a defence of Christianity that drew on neo-Platonic philosophy, Christian doctrine and biblical history. His major work is City of God (413–25).
Mikhail Bakunin (1814–76) A Russian propagandist and revolutionary, Bakunin supported a collectivist form of anarchism that was based on a belief in human sociability, expressed in the desire for freedom within a community of equals.
Jeremy Bentham (1748–1832) A British philosopher and legal reformer, Bentham was the founder of utilitarianism and a major influence on the reform of social administration, government and economics in nineteenth-century Britain. His major works include Fragments on Government (1776) and Principles of Morals and Legislation (1789).
Jean Bodin (1530–96) A French political philosopher, Bodin was the first important theorist of sovereignty, which he defined as ‘the absolute and perpetual power of a commonwealth’. His most important work is The Six Books of the Commonwealth (1576).
Edmund Burke (1729–97) A Dublin-born British statesman and political theorist, Burke was the father of the Anglo-American conservative tradition that accepts the principle of ‘change in order to conserve’. His most important work is Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790).
Robert Cox (1926– ) A Canadian international economist and leading exponent of critical theory, Cox has examined issues ranging from the role of social forces in the making of history to the implications of globalization and the nature of US global hegemony. His seminal work is Production, Power and World Order (1987).
Friedrich Engels (1820–95) A German socialist theorist and life-long friend and collaborator of Marx, Engels elaborated Marx’s ideas and theories for the benefit of the growing socialist movement in the late nineteenth century. His major works include The Origins of the Family, Private Property and the State (1884) and Dialectics of Nature (1925).
Michel Foucault (1926–84) A French philosopher, Foucault was a major influence on poststructuralism and was concerned with forms of knowledge and the construction of the human subject. His most important works include Madness and Civilisation (1961), The Archaeology of Knowledge (1969) and History of Sexuality (1976–84).
Erich Fromm (1900–80) A German-born psychoanalyst and social philosopher, Fromm developed a critique of modern society that blended the ideas of Freud, Marx and, in later life, Buddhism. His best-known works include Fear of Freedom (1941), The Sane Society (1955) and To Have or To Be? (1976).
Francis Fukuyama (1952– ) A US social analyst and political commentator, Fukuyama has advanced a strong defence of US-style market capitalism and liberal-democratic political structures. His works include The End of History and the Last Man (1992) and Trust (1996).
Antonio Gramsci (1891–1937) An Italian Marxist and social theorist, Gramsci rejected ‘scientific’ determinism by stressing, through the theory of hegemony, the importance of the political and intellectual struggle. His major work is Prison Notebooks (1929–35).
Jürgen Habermas (1929– ) A German philosopher and social theorist, Habermas is the leading exponent of the ‘second generation’ of the Frankfurt School of critical theory. His main works include Towards a Rational Society (1970), Legitimation Crisis (1973) and The Theory of Communicative Competence (1984).
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831) A German philosopher, Hegel was the founder of modern idealism and advanced an organic theory of the state that portrayed it as the highest expression of human freedom. His main works include Phenomenology of Spirit (1807) and Philosophy of Right (1821).
Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679) An English political philosopher, Hobbes developed the first comprehensive theory of nature and human behaviour since Aristotle and advanced a rationalist defence of absolutism. His major work is Leviathan (1651).
Samuel P. Huntington (1927–2008) A US political commentator and academic, Huntington made influential contributions to military politics, US and comparative politics, and the politics of less developed societies, but was best known for The Clash of Civilization and the Making of World Order (1996). His other works include The Third Wave (1991) and Who Are We? (2004).
Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) A German philosopher, Kant advanced an ethical individualism that stressed the importance of morality in politics and has had considerable impact on liberal thought. His most important works include Critique of Pure Reason (1781), Critique of Practical Reason (1788) and Critique of Judgement (1790).
Robert Keohane (1941– ) A US international relations theorist and exponent of neoliberal institutionalism, Keohane, with Joseph Nye, advanced a critique of realism based on the theory of ‘complex interdependence’, developed in Power and Interdependence (1977). In his later writing, Keohane attempted to synthsize structural realism and complex interdependence.
John Maynard Keynes (1883–1946) A British economist, Keynes developed a critique of neoclassical economics that underlined the need for ‘demand management’ by government. His major work is The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money (1936).
Pyotr Kropotkin (1842–1921) A Russian geographer and anarchist theorist, Kropotkin drew attention to the human propensity for freedom and equality, based on the idea of mutual aid. His major works include Mutual Aid (1897), Fields, Factories and Workshops (1901) and The Conquest of Bread (1906).
Vladimir Ilyich Lenin (1870–1924) A Russian Marxist theorist and revolutionary, Lenin built on the theories of Marx by emphasising the issues of organisation and revolution. His most important works include What is to be Done? (1902), Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism (1916) and State and Revolution (1917).
John Locke (1632–1704) An English philosopher and politician, Locke was a key thinker of early liberalism and a powerful advocate of consent and constitutionalism. His most important political works are A Letter Concerning Toleration (1689) and Two Treatises of Government (1690).
Niccolò Machiavelli (1469–1527) An Italian politician and author, Machiavelli portrayed politics in strictly realistic terms and highlighted the use by political leaders of cunning, cruelty and manipulation. His major work is The Prince (1513).
James Madison (1751–1836) A US statesman and political theorist, Madison was a leading proponent of pluralism and divided government, urging the adoption of federalism, bicameralism and the separation of powers as the basis of US government. His best-known political writings are his contributions to The Federalist (1787–8).
Joseph de Maistre (1753–1821) A French aristocrat and political thinker, de Maistre was a fierce critic of the French Revolution and an implacable supporter of monarchical absolutism. His chief political work is Du pape (1817).
Herbert Marcuse (1898–1979) A German political philosopher and social theorist, Marcuse developed a radical critique of advanced industrial society but emphasised both its repressive character and the potential for liberation. His most important works include Reason and Revolution (1941), Eros and Civilisation (1958) and One Dimensional Man (1964).
Karl Marx (1818–83) A German philosopher, economist and political thinker, Marx advanced a teleological theory of history that held that social development would eventually culminate with the establishment of communism. His classic work is Capital (1867, 1885 and 1894); his best-known work is Communist Manifesto (1848).
Giuseppe Mazzini (1805–72) An Italian nationalist and apostle of liberal republicanism, Mazzini was an early advocate of the universal right to national self-determination, viewed as the key to freedom and international harmony.
Robert Michels (1876–1936) A German politician and social theorist, Michels drew attention to elite tendencies within all organisations, summed up in the ‘iron law of oligarchy’. His major work is Political Parties (1911).
James Mill (1773–1836) A Scottish philosopher, historian and economist, Mill helped to turn utilitarianism into a radical reform movement. His best-known work is Essay on Government (1820).
John Stuart Mill (1806–73) A British philosopher, economist and politician, Mill was an important liberal thinker who opposed collectivist tendencies and tradition and upheld the importance of individual freedom, based on a commitment to individuality. His major writings include On Liberty (1859), Considerations on Representative Government (1861) and The Subjection of Women (1869).
Kate Millett (1934– ) A US writer and sculptor, Millett developed radical feminism into a systematic theory that clearly stood apart from established liberal and socialist traditions. Her major work is Sexual Politics (1970).
Charles-Louis de Secondat Montesquieu (1689–1775) A French political philosopher, Montesquieu emphasised the need to resist tyranny by fragmenting government power, particularly through the device of the separation of powers. His major work is The Spirit of the Laws (1748).
Hans Morgenthau (1892–1982) A German-born US international relations theorist, Morgenthau developed a ‘science of power politics’ based on the belief of what he called ‘political man’s insatiable desire to dominate others’. His major writings include Politics Amongst Nations (1948), In Defence of the National Interest (1951) and The Purpose of American Politics (1960).
Gaetano Mosca (1857–1941) An Italian elite theorist, Mosca argued that a cohesive minority will always be able to manipulate and control the masses, even in a parliamentary democracy. His major work is The Ruling Class (1896).
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) A German philosopher, Nietzsche’s complex and ambitious work stressed the importance of will, especially the ‘will to power’, and anticipated modern existentialism in emphasising that people create their own world and make their own values. His best-known writings include Thus Spoke Zarathustra (1883–84), Beyond Good and Evil (1886) and On the Genealogy of Morals (1887).
Robert Nozick (1938–2002) A US academic and political philosopher, Nozick developed a form of libertarianism that was close to Locke’s and has had considerable impact on the New Right. His major works include Anarchy, State and Utopia (1974) and Philosophical Explanations (1981).
Michael Oakeshott (1901–90) A British political philosopher, Oakeshott was a leading proponent of conservative traditionalism and an advocate of a non-ideological style of politics. His best-known works include Rationalism in Politics and Other Essays (1962) and On Human Conduct (1975).
Robert Owen (1771–1858) A British industrialist and pioneer trade unionist, Owen developed a utopian form of socialism that emphasised the capacity of the social environment to influence character. His best-known work is A New View of Society (1812).
Vilfredo Pareto (1848–1923) An Italian economist and social theorist, Pareto developed a form of elitism that is based largely on the different psychological propensities of leaders and followers. His major work is The Mind and Society (1917–18).
Plato (427–347 BCE) A Greek philosopher, Plato taught that the material world consists of imperfect copies of abstract and eternal ‘ideas’, and described the ‘ideal state’ in terms of a theory of justice. His major writings include The Republic and The Laws.
Karl Popper (1902–94) An Austrian-born British philosopher, Popper’s political writings upheld liberalism and the free society and condemned authoritarian and totalitarian tendencies. His main political work is The Open Society and its Enemies (1945).
Pierre-Joseph Proudhon (1809–65) A French anarchist, Proudhon attacked both traditional property rights and communism, arguing instead for mutualism, a cooperative productive system geared towards need rather than profit. His best-known work is What is Property? (1840).
John Rawls (1921–2002) A US academic and political philosopher, Rawls used a form of social contract theory to reconcile liberal individualism with the principles of redistribution and social justice. His major works include A Theory of Justice (1971) and Political Liberalism (1993).
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–78) A Geneva-born French moral and political philosopher, Rousseau developed a philosophy that reflects a deep belief in the goodness of ‘natural man’ and the corruption of ‘social man’. His best-known political work is The Social Contract (1762).
Adam Smith (1723–90) A Scottish economist and philosopher, Smith developed the first systematic analysis of the workings of the economy in market terms, crucially influencing emergent classical liberalism. His most famous work is The Wealth of Nations (1776).
Richard Henry Tawney (1880–1962) A British social philosopher and historian, Tawney advocated a form of socialism that was firmly rooted in a Christian social moralism unconnected with Marxist class analysis. His major works include The Acquisitive Society (1921), Equality (1931) and The Radical Tradition (1964).
Kenneth Waltz (1924–2013) A US international relations theorist, Waltz was the key figure in the development of neorealism. In Theory of International Politics (1979), he used systems theory to explain how international anarchy shapes the actions of states, placing a particular focus on the distribution of capabilities between and among states.
Max Weber (1864–1920) A German political economist and sociologist, Weber was one of the founders of modern sociology and championed a scientific and value-free approach to scholarship. His most influential works include The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (1902), The Sociology of Religion (1920) and Economy and Society (1922).
Alexander Wendt (1958– ) A German-born international relations theorist who has worked mainly in the USA, Wendt is a meta-theorist who has used constructivism to develop a critique of both neorealism and neoliberal institutionalism. His major works include ‘Anarchy is What States Make of It’ (International Organization, 1992) and Social Theory of International Politics (1999).