Democracy in America

How to take power, keep it, and lose it, in the short treatise that founded modern political thought. Our own Project Aldus edition, with clean typesetting and a biographical introduction to Machiavelli.

Niccolò Machiavelli

Hobbes makes the case for a strong sovereign, starting from his famous picture of life without government as nasty, brutish and short. The complete text in a clean modern layout.

Thomas Hobbes

Locke argues that government rests on the consent of the governed and exists to protect life, liberty and property. The Second Treatise shaped the Declaration of Independence and modern liberal democracy.

John Locke

Rousseau explains what makes government legitimate, introducing popular sovereignty and the general will. It opens with one of the most famous lines in political writing: man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

The 85 essays written to defend the U.S. Constitution, explaining federalism, the separation of powers and checks and balances. Still the best guide to how the framers thought about government.

Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay