Niccolo Machiavelli and Thomas Hobbes write on the topic of politics through their books "The Prince," and "The Leviathan." The concepts discussed within their respective works share and differ on many points. This essay will discuss that in length: on what points Hobbes' Leviathan resembles Machiavelli's principality, on what points the former resembles latter's republic, and on what points the two differ. This essay will finally argue that the Leviathan's political system contains elements from both republics and principalities, as its overriding objective is to enforce the social contract and prevent the society from falling into the state of nature. The Leviathan resembles a principality in several ways. In Machiavelli's words, "the principalities are either hereditary, in which the bloodline of their lord has been their prince for a long time, or they are new" (Machiavelli, 5). Hobbes similarly argues that dominion is acquired either by generation, in which the child succeeds his father when he dies (Hobbes, 128), or by conquest, in which the victor becomes the master and the vanquished becomes the servant (Hobbes, 130). Furthermore, the offices of the sovereign have absolute authority over the commonwealth, which means that the sovereign is free to command as it pleases and the people of the commonwealth must obey its commands. Its powers must be neither limited nor divided (Hobbes, 213). This implies that Hobbes prefers the state to be ruled by one person, such as a monarch, because if it was ruled by more than one person, then its authority would be divided among the rulers, which is a contradiction. Finally, Hobbes argues that people fear each other in the state of nature and agree to escape this constant state of fear by erecting a common power that will enforce agreements (Hobbes, 88). With the establishment of a greater power, people fear breaking their contracts, which has certain consequences. However, the fear in the state of nature is much more severe than in the commonwealth, because in the state of nature people face imminent death, whereas