section_path: Property in philosophy/Modern philosophy/James Harrington (17th century)
section_name: James Harrington (17th century)
paragraph_text: James Harrington (17th century)
  
  A contemporary of Hobbes, James Harrington, reacted to the same tumult differently: he considered property natural but not inevitable. The author of " Oceana," he may have been the first political theorist to postulate that political power is a consequence, not the cause, of the distribution of property. He said that the worst possible situation is when the commoners have half a nation's property, with the crown and nobility holding the other half—a circumstance fraught with instability and violence. He suggested a much better situation (a stable republic) would exist once the commoners own most property.
  
  In later years, the ranks of Harrington's admirers included American revolutionary and founder John Adams.