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In this paper, I provide a sketch of the republican view of freedom and government. And then, looking forward, I highlight the potential of this long, shared tradition of thinking for contemporary politics. As a philosophy of government, so I argue, neo-republicanism offers a very attractive alternative to the neo-liberalism that has been recently dominant in policy circles. In my discussion, I consider republicanism first, liberalism second, since that answers to the historical order in which the doctrines appeared. The paper is in three main sections. In the first, I provide a short history of classic republican thinking. In a second, briefer section, I describe the rise of classical liberalism, which displaced republican thought over the following century. And in the third, I look at the alternatives represented in contemporary thought by neo-republicanism and neo-liberalism, highlighting what I see as the advantages of the neo-republican approach.

HOBBES'S HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH CIVIL WAR, THE BEHEMOTH, HAS BEEN NEGLECTED BY CONTEMPORARY SCHOLARS, YET IT PROVIDES THE CLEAREST STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM THAT HOBBES'S POLITICAL SCIENCE IS DESIGNED TO SOLVE. IN BEHEMOTH, HOBBES SHOWS THAT SOCIETIES SUCH AS SEVENTEENTH CENTURY ENGLAND INEVITABLY DEGENERATE INTO CIVIL WAR BECAUSE THEY ARE FOUNDED ON AUTHORITATIVE OPINION. THE CLAIM THAT THERE IS A SINGLE, AUTHORITATIVE DEFINITION OF RIGHTNESS OR TRUTH WHICH IS NOT AN ARBITRARY HUMAN CHOICE IS AN ILLUSION OF "INTELLECTUAL VAINGLORY," A FEELING OF PRIDE IN THE SUPERIORITY OF ONE'S OPINIONS WHICH CAUSES PERSECUTION AND CIVIL STRIFE. BY PRESENTING HOBBES'S HISTORICAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF THIS PROBLEM, I ILLUMINATE HIS ARGUMENT FOR ABSOLUTISM AND SHOW THAT HOBBES IS NOT A PRECURSOR OF TOTALITARIANISM BUT A FOUNDER OF LIBERALISM.

Hobbes's history of the English Civil War, The Behemoth, has been neglected by contemporary scholars, yet it provides the clearest statement of the problem that Hobbes's political science is designed to solve. In Behemoth, Hobbes shows that societies such as seventeenth century England inevitably degenerate into civil war because they are founded on authoritative opinion. The claim that there is a single, authoritative definition of Tightness or truth which is not an arbitrary human choice is an illusion of "intellectual vainglory," a feeling of pride in the superiority of one's opinions which causes persecution and civil strife. By presenting Hobbes's historical and psychological analysis of this problem, I illuminate his argument for absolutism and show that Hobbes is not a precursor of totalitarianism but a founder of liberalism.

Archbishop James Ussher's manuscript notebooks allow us to observe the making of a Calvinist absolutist and to orientate the archbishop's beliefs about royal power within European Reformed thought as a whole. By 1643, Ussher was preaching a polished and complete theory of absolute royal power, and it is possible to track the development of this political theory forward from his undergraduate days in the 1590s. Throughout his life Ussher engaged anxiously with Reformed theologians abroad, who generally favored limited rather than absolute monarchy. Nevertheless, Ussher shared with these Reformed colleagues both an antipathy to aspects of Aristotelian politics and a commitment to the divine institution of royal power. Finally, despite Ussher's hostility to Laudian innovations in the Irish Church, his heartfelt political beliefs made him a firm supporter of Stuart absolutism throughout the Three Kingdoms.