During the Age of Enlightenment (the 1700s), political systems expanded from basic self-governance and monarchist establishments to the complex democracies and communist states that have existed since.
The Renaissance introduced secular political philosophy. The era was sculpted by the influential works of Machiavelli, particularly in the West. Machiavelli's support of the Republic of Florence rather than the oligarchy of the di Medici family presented a pragmatic and almost consequentialist view of contemporary politics. John Locke illustrated this new age of political theory with his proposal: a state of nature theory that proposed political development should be founded through contractual obligation.
The Enlightenment period was influenced by the discovery of other societies in America and the changing needs of political societies in the wake of the English Civil War and the American Revolution. Theorists were driven by two basic questions: by what right or need do people form states, and what the best form for a state could be. This led to distinctions and definitions being drawn about the terms ‘state’ and ‘government’, a conceptual distinction that still operates in political science today.
The Industrial Revolution brought Marxism and Communism. Maoism and Ho Chi Minh Thought were a result of this line of thought during the Cold War. Industrialisation also enabled the rise of colonialism with the developments in technology, accompanied by the ideology of imperialism. This would inspire anti-imperialist ideologies such as Gandhism and Nasserism.
Written by Coco Clelland
Artwork by Aurora Brooks
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