Blog favorite Alain de Botton (have you met Alain?) recently held a crash course in Political Philosophy via seven tweets:

1: Plato: We should be ruled not by leaders chosen by a majority, but by those who are most intelligent.

2. St Augustine: We should not try to build paradise on earth. Aim for tolerable government, true government only possible in the next life.

3. Machiavelli: Politician must choose between serving the interests of country and the interests of Christian morality. Can’t have both.

4. Hobbes: Rulers not appointed by God, but by people and if they can’t guarantee their security, they can be legitimately kicked out.

5. Smith: The market cannot alone create a moral community. Civil society must nudge capitalists to be good through emulation and honours.

6. Karl Marx: The ‘profit’ of a capitalist is in essence theft, the stolen life and labour of the proletariat.

7. J.S. Mill: Governments should not tell people how to live, they should give them the preconditions to make their own choices.

 

To learn more about Alain de Botton: web, wiki, facebook, twitter

Some of his books:
The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work
The Architecture of Happiness (Vintage)
How Proust Can Change Your Life
Status Anxiety
The Consolations of Philosophy