This course aims to provide an overview of perhaps the two most important schools of thought in the political philosophy of the modern West: the social contract theory and utilitarianism. These two theories address the most important questions of political life such as justification of state power, protection of individual rights and liberties, equality of opportunity and economic distribution, capitalism vs. socialism vs. welfare state, etc. Different social contract theorists have argued for an authoritarian regime as well as a liberal democracy, for laissez-faire markets as well as government taxes, while the utilitarian thinkers generally propose to organize society and politics in the way that maximizes utility. This course will go over the most representative works of major spokesmen of both schools, ranging from Thomas Hobbes to J. S. Mill to John Rawls, and analyze their different positions on the question of how to organize the government.