Suarez in eighteenth century british political thought. Burke's political thought and Suarez's inheritance

The purpose of this paper is to show the influence Suárez had on British Anglican political thought, namely on Edmund Burke, an important Whig politician of the eighteenth century. This influence is vital for a thorough understanding of the position of the British – Irish born – politician in several of his important battles, such as the criticism of the French Revolution or Burke's denunciation of the tyrannical administration of India. Burke’s approach to the Social Contract is of vital importance when attempting to understand his political thought and this paper aims to prove its close connection to the political thought of Suárez on this topic. In order to achieve this goal several passages of Suárez in De Legibus and in Book III of Defensio Fidei have been compared with some crucial passages of Burke's political writings in order to track Suárez's influence on Burke's political thought.