History of political thought

The history of political thought dates back to antiquity. The political history of the world, and thus the history of political thinking by man, stretches up through the Medieval period and the Renaissance. In the Age of Enlightenment, political entities expanded from basic systems of self-governance and monarchy to the complex democratic and communist systems that exist of the Industrialized and the Modern Era. In parallel, political systems have expanded from vaguely defined frontier-type boundaries, to the definite boundaries existing today.

As an academic discipline, Western political philosophy has its origins in ancient Greek society, when city-states were experimenting with various forms of political organization including monarchy, tyranny, , oligarchy, and democracy. One of the first, extremely important classical works of political philosophy is Plato's Republic, which was followed by Aristotle's Politics, both created in the context of Athenian democracy. Roman political philosophy was influenced by Greek schools of thought, particularly Stoicism, in conjunction with the Roman tradition of republicanism, as evidenced by the political philosophy of the Roman statesman Cicero.

Independently, Confucius, Mencius, Mozi and the Legalist school in China, and the Laws of Manu and Chanakya in India, all sought to find means of restoring political unity and political stability; in the case of the former three through the cultivation of virtue, in the last by imposition of discipline. In India, Chanakya, in his Arthashastra, developed a viewpoint which foreshadowed both the Legalists and Niccolò Machiavelli. Ancient Chinese and Indian civilizations resembled Greek civilization in that there was a unified culture divided into rival states. In the case of China, philosophers found themselves obliged to confront social and political breakdown, and seek solutions to the crisis that confronted their entire civilization.

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