## TL;DR
Political philosophy addresses fundamental questions of governance: What is justice? What justifies state authority? The social contract tradition — Hobbes through Locke and Rousseau to Rawls — provides the dominant Western framework.

## Core Explanation
Hobbes argued for absolute sovereignty. Locke countered with natural rights justifying revolution. Rousseau emphasized the general will. Rawls synthesized social contract theory with distributive justice.

## Detailed Analysis
Nozick's libertarian critique argues only a minimal state is justified. Communitarianism (Sandel, MacIntyre) critiques liberalism's abstract individualism.

## Further Reading
- Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Political Philosophy
- The Harvard Justice Course (Michael Sandel, free online)
- Philosophy Bites Podcast