Editing Property (section)

==== James Harrington (17th century) ====

A contemporary of Hobbes, [[James Harrington (author)|James Harrington]], reacted to the same tumult differently: he considered property natural but not inevitable. The author of "[[Oceana (book)|Oceana]]," he may have been the first political theorist to postulate that political power is a consequence, not the cause, of the distribution of property. He said that the worst possible situation is when the commoners have half a nation's property, with the crown and nobility holding the other half—a circumstance fraught with instability and violence. He suggested a much better situation (a stable republic) would exist once the commoners own most property.

In later years, the ranks of Harrington's admirers included American revolutionary and founder [[John Adams]].