Why now? The digital world

The questions on why and how states were formed have arisen most pressingly in periods of political upheaval. Plato formed his theory in the aftermath of the Peloponnesian War; Aristotle when the first kingdom subjugated all the city-states of ancient Greece; Cicero during the transition between the Res Publica and the Roman Empire; St Augustine at the point of the demise of Imperial Rome and its replacement by Christianity; Machiavelli while new kingdoms, empires and city-states struggled for sovereignty in medieval Europe; Hobbes when civil war to change the form of government cost thousands of human lives (including a ceremoniously executed king); the writings of Locke and Rousseau supported the American and French revolutions; and those of early and mid-20th century philosophers’ dealt with Fascism and Communism.

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