LEVIATHAN is a groundbreaking work on political philosophy which established the foundation for most Western political philosophy from the perspective of social contract theory. Written during the English Civil war, much of LEVIATHAN is occupied with demonstrating the necessity of a strong central authority to (hopefully) prevent social strife and civil war. Hobbes contends that any abuses of power by this authority are to be accepted as the price of peace. In particular, the doctrine of separation of powers is rejected: the sovereign must control civil, military, judicial and ecclesiastical powers.