Politics in Restoration Literature
The "Restoration" in Restoration literature comes from a political event (the restoration of monarchy in Britain in 1660) so it's no huge surprise that politics, and political themes, are kind of a big deal in this literary movement.
Restoration literature raises big ol' political questions like: What type of government is best for society? What role does government, or monarchy, play in people's lives? What kind of allegiance do we owe to our government? How does politics shape culture? The Restoration period was a time when Britain was seriously re-thinking its political identity. And we'll find that the Restoration writers were also thinking pretty hard about politics in their writing.
Chew on This
John Locke's Essay Concerning Human Understanding was a super-duper-important political tract of the Restoration period, and (bonus importance!) it influenced the American Revolution.
John Dryden was a fan of monarchy as a governmental institution. In "Astraea Redux: A Poem on the Happy Restoration and Return of His Sacred Majesty Charles the Second," he celebrates the restoration of Charles II to the throne. If he was around today, you can bet he'd have a crush on Kate Middleton.