Key Philosophers and Theorists in Political Thought

Aristotle

Known for his ideas on regimes and regime transition.

Aristotle

Believed 'man is by nature a political animal'.

Benedict Spinoza

Argued against religious fundamentalism.

Benedict Spinoza

Argued that religious leaders should not have political power.

Benedict Spinoza

The role of the state is to ensure freedom for its citizens.

Charles Tilly

Known for his work on state formation.

Charles Tilly

Argued that states emerged as 'protection rackets' engaging in war making, state making, and extraction.

Confucius

Concerned with social and political order amidst violence.

Cynthia Enloe

Critiqued the lack of attention paid to women in traditional approaches to international relations.

Dahl

Offered a broad definition of politics that encompasses power relations across different social contexts.

Dahl

Outlined conditions for democracy.

Edmund Burke

Critiqued the Enlightenment and liberalism.

Edmund Burke

Emphasized tradition, relationships, authority, and civic virtue over abstract individual rights.

Edward Said

Argued that Europeans defined themselves in opposition to other cultures, especially Middle Eastern cultures.

Erica Frantz

Offered a minimalist definition of authoritarian regimes, focusing on how executives achieve power.

Foucault

Known for his genealogical approach to understanding power and his ideas about the relationship between power and knowledge.

Gramsci

Developed the concept of hegemony, which describes how the ruling class maintains power not only through force but also through ideas and culture.

Hans Morgenthau

Known for his pessimistic view of human nature and his idea that politics trumps morality.

Hobbes

Known for his idea of the state of nature as a 'war of all against all,' which necessitates a strong sovereign to provide order.

Hobbes

An antecedent to realism in international relations theory.

Immanuel Kant

Viewed revolution as a force for human progress.

Immanuel Kant

An antecedent to liberal IR theory.

Immanuel Wallerstein

Known for his world-systems theory, which critiques the idea of the international system as a collection of autonomous nation-states and focuses on core-periphery relationships.

Isaiah Berlin

Known for his distinction between negative and positive liberty.

J. Ann Tickner

Critiqued traditional social contract theorists (Hobbes, Locke, and Rousseau) for having a male-centric view of human nature.

Jean B. Elshtain

Argued that women are not merely passive peacekeepers but can also be active participants in war and violence.

Jeremy Bentham

Known for his theory of utilitarianism, which judges actions and policies based on whether they promote the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people.

John Locke

Known for his emphasis on natural rights, limited government, and the idea of the social contract.

John Locke

Emphasized negative freedom.

John Mearsheimer

Argues that states maximize their power to ensure survival in the anarchic international system.

John Rawls

Known for his theory of justice as fairness, which argues for a society based on principles of liberty and equality.

John Stuart Mill

Argued that greater freedom leads to greater happiness and that freedom of expression should extend to all ideas.

Jürgen Habermas

Known for his theory of deliberative democracy, which emphasizes the importance of reasoned public deliberation in decision-making.

Kenneth Waltz

Known for his structural realist theory of international relations, which emphasizes the anarchic structure of the international system as the primary determinant of state behaviour.

Kenneth Waltz

Argued that states seek security, not power, in the international system, and that bipolar systems tend to be more stable than multipolar systems.

Kimberlé Crenshaw

Known for her concept of intersectionality, which highlights how different forms of oppression, such as race, gender, and class, intersect and interact.

Lenin

Viewed imperialism as the highest stage of capitalism.

Linz

Argued that parliamentary systems are more conducive to democratic stability than presidential systems.

Machiavelli

Known for his emphasis on raison d'état and for his view that politics is often amoral.

Machiavelli

An antecedent to realism in international relations.

Marx & Engels

Known for their theory of historical materialism and their analysis of capitalism.

Marx & Engels

Influenced socialist approaches to international relations.

Michel Foucault

Known for his work on power, knowledge, and discourse.

Michel Foucault

Argued that power is not just repressive but also productive, shaping how we think and act.

Robert Cox

Argued that realism is an ideology that supports the status quo and that international relations theory should be critical of power relations.

Robert Keohane

Known for his argument that international institutions can facilitate cooperation among states even in an anarchic system.

Robert Nozick

Critiqued Rawls's theory of justice for advocating redistribution of wealth, arguing that it violates individuals' rights to property.

Rousseau

Known for his ideas about the general will, popular sovereignty, and the social contract.

Rousseau

Emphasized positive liberty.

Theda Skocpol

Known for her comparative-historical analysis of revolutions, which emphasizes the role of state structures and international contexts.

Thucydides

Known for his account of the Peloponnesian War, which emphasizes the importance of power and self-interest in international relations.

Thucydides

The Melian Dialogue from his work is considered an early example of realist thinking.

V.I. Lenin

Applied Marxist theory to international relations, arguing that capitalism leads to imperialism.

Weber

Known for his definition of the state as having a monopoly on the legitimate use of force, his typology of authority, and his influence on constructivism in international relations theory.

Zygmunt Bauman

Argued that fascism is a modern phenomenon that seeks to control and order society using the tools of modernity.