Tractatus Politicus

This treatise has the subtitle, "In quo demonstratur, quomodo Societas, ubi Imperium Monarchicum locum habet, sicut et ea, ubi Optimi imperant, debet institui, ne in Tyrannidem labatur, et ut Pax, Libertasque civium inviolata maneat."

("In which it is demonstrated how a society, may it be a monarchy or an aristocracy, can be best governed, so as not to fall into tyranny, and so that the peace and liberty of the citizens remain unviolated").

Unlike Aristotle, Spinoza argued in the last chapter that democracy is not "rule of majority", but freedom for all by the natural law.

This unfinished work includes Spinoza's only discussion of women, whom he considered unsuitable to hold political power, at odds with his usual radical stances on other hierarchies.

Indeed, it has been suggested that the Political Treatise is an extended response to the authoritarian rule of William of Orange following the invasion of the Netherlands by France in 1672 and which continued as Spinoza was writing the text.