Thomas Hobbes’s political manifesto ‘Leviathan’ (or, as it was originally titled: “
Leviathan or The Matter, Forme and Power of a Common-Wealth Ecclesiastical and Civil’, 1651) holds that a commonwealth with a social contract is the ideal way to govern a body of people.
Hobbes argues that a sovereign power is best equipped to maintain peace and civic unity and that each of the nation’s citizens buys into a social contract that allows the sovereign power to act on behalf of safety and public defence. The central image of the philosophy is a
leviathan or sea monster, with a body made of human constituents and a head representing the sovereign leader. According to Hobbes, this philosophy is the best in order to avoid civil war and maintain a unified nation. The manifesto is broken up into four sections, which build on this central idea.
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