In Leviathan Hobbes’s attention newly focuses on the practice of governing. There are five new chapters (22–-25, 27–28) on matters of government structure and policy which would concern a real ruler – in the obvious, immediate instance, Charles, the Prince of Wales. Versus the familiar theoretical question of whether Hobbes’s absolute ruler would have reason to govern well, good government is the subject of these chapters in a more practical vein. Like the policy binders prepared for incoming governments today, they advise on such domestic programmes as taxation and criminal justice and counsel the ruler to maintain control in relationships with subordinates. First, it is of interest to compare Hobbes’s ideas with Stuart and Tudor policies so as to assess their currency: How modern was his political thinking? Second, from a philosophical angle, these discussions are salient to current interpretations of Leviathan as a model of nonideal theory. Hobbes is telling rulers how to create a decent state in the context of real-world politics, a state that – albeit in necessarily imperfect ways – serves the public welfare, their subjects’ good, and their own.