ABSTRACT
Three main factors determine the problems of political theory as they come to the reader today; nationality, individualism and specialisation. The paradox of politics is the reconciliation of liberty and obligation, and a first free enquiry might naturally light on Contract as a parallel. The right reply, however, to such historical forms of the contract theory is not that Hobbes’ history is wrong but that all such history is irrelevant. The contract theory, however, does not lose its value by losing its historical accuracy. With a strong and dispersed police force, with a fairly civilised populace, with religious leaders addicted more to newspaper controversy than to torture, the modern sovereign is able to rely on ad hoc measures when the need occurs. It is curious how many people would then be reconciled to the absolutism which has remained all along unaltered.
