Reflection on the nature of human community and government, and relations between the collective and the individual. Topics include the legitimacy of government in its different forms, the foundations of law, the powers and boundaries of state interference with individuals (which includes such things as the nature of property), the relations of states between themselves, and the rights and duties associated with membership of a political unity. For different topics see anarchism; communism, liberalism; polis; law, philosophy of; socialism.