
LEVIATHAN AGAINST THE CITY
Thomas Hobbes tends to be read through the lens of the nation-state. Recently, historians of urban politics have shown that borough politics were essential elements of the British politics, culminating in the civil wars. The purpose of this article is to contextualize the developments
in Hobbes's political theory within that urban history. Against the widespread interpretation that Hobbes's theory of the state in Leviathan responds only to the ideology of national popular sovereignty, I argue that it also amounts to an assault on the practices of urban republican
politics. To make my case, I triangulate the theory of the state in Leviathan using European ideological, local historical and textual coordinates. This perspective affords new insights into Hobbes's understanding of democracy, republicanism, popular sovereignty and the state.
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Document Type: Research Article
Affiliations: Department of Political Science and Public Administration, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, De Boelelaan 1081, 1081 HV Amsterdam, The Netherlands., Email: [email protected]
Publication date: January 1, 2020