The Case for Political Loyalty

This paper proposes the idea of loyalty being a force that must be chosen and given freely, as well as the demand for political loyalty to be selfless concept. The first part of the paper uses examples from the HBO series Rome to illustrate how loyalty works within society, as well as the works· of modem political scientists Jean Hampton, Christopher W. Morris, and W.L. Newman to explain the faults within these examples of loyalty. The essay than moves on to Plato's Republic and Aristotle's Politics to explain better where the concept of political loyalty comes from, and the importance of this loyalty to a just state. Through the use of these various authors, the thesis that political loyalty is necessary is explored and confirmed.