Nude Teen Girl Painting by Amedo Modigalini

George Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel was born at Stuttgart in Germany in an affluent family. After his higher education, he taught at Beme University in Switzerland. Hegel is considered as a great political thinker as Plato, Rousseau and Marx. Hegel was a firm believer in ‘idealism and is considered a prominent exponent of this philosophy in political thought. His ideas are given below briefly:
State: Hegel believed that the state is the gift of divine power. General personal freedom can exist in the state, but an individual should obey all orders of the state.

Government: Hegel supports constitutional government. He was opposed to decentralization and approved of the need for an army. He believed that sovereignty rests in the government.

War: Hegel considered was essential for the state as it destroyed selfish and wanton elements. War is an indication of the state’s prowess.

Law: He was in favor of punishing the guilty and was opposed to international laws.

Constitution: Hegel was in favor of constitutional monarchy. In his opinion, the state should have control of government, judiciary and constitutional organs in monarchy.

Dualism: Hegel believed that when two streams of thought collide, a new ideology is born. That he called ‘dualism’. He has named the three ideologies as ‘Thesis”. ‘Antithesis’ and ‘Synthesis’. According to him constitutional monarchy is born out of the conflict between ,democracy’ and ‘despotism’.

Hegel’s ideology is labeled as ‘radical idealism’ which later inspired Nazism and Fascism. His radical views were the need of the hour as Germany was composed of tiny principalities in his time