The industrial revolution compelled the reform of the British House of Commons, and democracy has slowly superseded aristocracy, not from any enthusiasm for the "sovereign people," but from the traditional belief that representative government means the rule of the people.
Precedent, not theory, has been the argument for democracy in England.
THOMAS HOBBES (1588-1679) The writings of Hobbes are important, because they state the case for absolute rule, or "a strong government," as we call it to-day.

Hobbes was frankly rationalist and secular.

Holding the great end of government to be happiness, he made out that natural man lived in savage ill-will with his fellows.

To secure some sort of decency and safety men combined together and surrendered all natural rights to a sovereign--either one man, or an assembly of men--and in return civil rights were guaranteed.

But the sovereignty once established was supreme, and to injure it was to injure oneself, since it was composed of "every particular man." The sovereign power was unlimited, and was not to be questioned.