ABSTRACT
Interest-based individual action is both a predictive resource in social science and a tool for the normative assessment of social life and collective institutions. 1 This association, I will argue, helps to clarify why the liberal and non-liberal doctrines about politics and economics can find a common ground in the kind of political methodology Hobbes promoted. Liberalism old and new is obviously not a theory of freedom alone: it is also a theory of coercion. Among the classical thinkers of man-made legitimate coercion, Hobbes stands out as an all-time intellectual model. Taking a look at some aspects of his intellectual legacy may help us understand the complex association of freedom and coercion we find at the heart of liberalism.
