The evolution of philosophical views on the place of man in government

The relationship between the people and the government and the role of the people in the government are among the issues raised in political philosophy. In this research, philosophical views on the position of the people in government have been studied and specifically representatives of philosophical views from ancient times to the modern period have been researched. The results of this study show that the share and position of people in the philosophical views of antiquity and the Middle Ages is limited. In ancient times, the role of the people was not recognized as a group with rights or political will. This thinking has continued in the Middle Ages. In the modern era, for the first time, people are clearly beyond the group for whom the government has educational duties or overpowers; They appear in political philosophy, and concepts such as social contract for Hobbes and fiduciary for Locke present government as the manifestation of the collective will of the people. Hobbes prescribes a kind of absolute government, Locke gives originality to individuality, and presents the state as the agent of the people. Weber is also based on the three forms of authority, and the relationship between government and people is accepted in his thought as a form of authority. But Kant, by focusing on the position of man in government and the characteristics he names for it, considers the republican government to be the only legitimate government in the world.