ABSTRACT
Thomas Hobbes’s Leviathan establishes a social contract based on placing great power in the central government, all for the sake of protecting freedom. Many modern citizens see the combination of nearly absolute power located in the central government and the protection of liberty as contradictory. In addition to his defense of a strong centralized government, Hobbes also makes the case for the state’s fundamental role in what would become liberal democracy, a role not only to support the common needs of citizens but to secure their freedom.
