Liberalism and Liberal Democracy I

I. Political thought and historical context

II. Importance of England

a.    rise of agricultural capitalism

·       specifically English

·       lords, tenants and wage labourers

·       enclosures

b.   transformation of state and political power

·       ‘Crown in Parliament’

·       civil strife

III. Thomas Hobbes

a.    forebearer of liberalism?

·       State of nature – nasty, brutish and short

·        Leviathan

·        A notion of authorization and consent?