What is the most signicant political text ever written?
Using a broad definition of significant ie. Hitler’s Mein Kampf would be acceptable (although its an awful book )
I would say it would be On Liberty by John Stuart Mill.
The basic ideas put forth in it underlie every political discussion that occurs in most world democracies, it strongly reinforced the women’s movement in England, and it was a huge deviation from the accepted theories of individual and state interaction that were prevalent in Victorian England.
Without question is should be John Locke’s Two Treatises of Government: In the Former, The False Principles and Foundation of Sir Robert Filmer, And His Followers, are Detected and Overthrown. The Latter is an Essay concerning The True Original, Extent, and End of Civil-Government. The execution of an Athenian democracy described in Plato’s The Republic (and to a more pragmatic extent in Statesman and Laws) is an idealized conception of democracy and mannered governance, but Locke dealt with the practicalities of implementing a truly functional representative republic run along democratic institutions in the real world using the concept of a “social contract” and undercutting the Hobbsian basis for unregulated monarchy. Given that most modern Industrial and post-Industrial nations either are or give lip-service to the value of democratic ideals (while monarchism, fascism, and the various bitter flavors of Communism have melted away like ice cream on a hot day) I’d argue that Locke authored what is to date the most significant and influential text in applied politics and governance.
Then of course, there is the non-European speaking world. Sun Zi’s Art of War is arguably the most important political track to influence China and the Chinese influenced Asian countries.
The Art of War is not a political work, however, and has very little to do with politics. Sure, it may have something there, but it’s impact on political systems is limited. Now, if you want to talk Confucius or Mencius, you may have something.
And while they’re not nearly as significant as the texts mentioned above, at least in a theoretical sense, I’d say that Judenstaat and Altneuland by Theodor Hezl had a major influence on the history of the latter half of the 20th Century and onward.
Mao would beg to differ…“Political power comes from the barrel of a gun” Reading Sun Zi as a military text does not reflect the way it influenced China, Korea, Japan, etc
This question is all over the place. The influence of Machiavelli’s ‘The Prince’ can hardly be compared to the influence of Marx’s ‘The Communist Manifesto’. Both books changed and influenced our understanding of how politics is practiced or should be practiced. However, The Manifesto contains no hands-on advice to individual leaders - why would it, communism is inevitable and does not depend on the efforts of individuals but rather on the class struggle as the motor of history. The Prince, on the other hand, does contain hands-on advice to leaders, but Machiavelli made no effort to describe what the policy goals to be achieved should be like. To him, those are given, and all he does is make an argument about how to best reach your goals as a leader. As such, I think they’re both influential in their own right and cannot be compared. I think the OP needs to be more specific about what he/she means by ‘the most significant political text ever written’.
I would rate Machiavelli’s Discourses as superios, and more relevant to modern goverment, than the Prince (I mean come on, he dedicated it to a man who had him tortured)
It may hav led to states being more stable through the use of effective military, but the sole political aspect is the relationship of the state/monarch to the military. More to the point, Mao’s saying has… nothing to do with Sun Tzu. Or any later commentator I am aware of.
And as far as I am aware, not translation worth mentioning has ever been found i Japan. There are some ridiculously bad ones, but they’re barely comprehensible.
It always amazes me how overlooked he is and yet his first book, Common Sense, is the cornerstone of American democracy and sparked off two revolutions - the American and the French. He invented the phrase “The United States of America”.
His second book, The Rights of Man, established the concepts of human rights and republicanism and his third book, The Age of Reason, ushered in the age of secularism and was a kick in the teeth for organised religion.
The Book of the SubGenius (the most significant text ever written – there is no need for a qualifier) expounds, among other things, the doctrine of pyschopatriotic anarcho-materialism: “Every yard a kingdom, every child and dog a serf!”
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