Soberania e representação: Hobbes, parlamentaristas e levellers

Abstract

The article intends to show that Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) adopted the concept of political authorization as means to fight against the doctrine of the accountability of political actors aheadof the persons they represented. Among these opponents, the levellers have a prominent place, by proposing, in the late 1640s, an innovative solution for the constitutional problem of the illegitimacy of the English Parliament: Extension of the franchise followed by a celebration of an Agreement of the People.