Hobbes & the Coleman Thesis
In his well-known book, Hobbes and America: Exploring the Constitutional Foundations (1977), Frank Coleman characterized Hobbes' political theory as liberal democratic and, therefore, as an appropriate model for understanding American liberalism. In this article, Professor Heinrichs contends that Hobbes' theory is neither liberal nor democratic, and that it is actually in opposition to, not in harmony with, liberal thought and practice in America.