Development of ideas about the state in the history of political thought

The article presents the evolution of ideas about the state in the history of political science. It shows the specifics of the formation of theories of the state at different stages of the development of social thought, from antiquity to the 19th century. The article outlines the principles on which the concepts of the state of Aristotle, Augustine the Blessed, Thomas Aquinas, Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Adam Smith, and John Stuart Mill are based. The article concludes that analyzing the evolution of state theories contributes to a deeper understanding of current political processes.