Politics of Ideas

Political parties can no longer just answer the question "How to win the electoral competition," but they must also be able to answer "How power is monitored and for whom power is managed."

Until the sixth post-reformation elections, the electoral contest had not moved away from the politics of power in Machiavelli's and Thomas Hobbes' terminology.

According to Machiavelli, power has autonomy separate from morality, so seizing and maintaining power can be done by any means necessary. Hobbes believed that humans are wolves to other humans (homo homini lupus). Therefore, the state must become a Leviathan, a predatory creature that is feared so that humans do not prey on each other.