Since the formation of the first social groups, human beings have always been in need to reflect upon three issues concerning the politics: Power and authority, the way rulers should act/decide and how the system of ruling should be formed, revised or challenged. First systematic reflections on both how to govern and organize the society and the effects of particular policies can be traced back to
the Ancient Greece.

This is not to underestimate the contributions of the Ancient Chinese political thought, which was based on multilayered aphorisms on ethical conduct, or Hindu political speculation, which produced influential expressions of commitment to the political order in a rather didactic form.