According to Locke, the purpose of a government is to help people achieve equal natural rights. The government is obligated to defend and protect its citizens. However, the government must rule with the consent of the people. Also if the citizens have given their voluntary consent, they must support and obey a government that has claimed power. The citizens are obliged to obey the government if it has established legitimacy. However, one cannot be obligated to obey the government unless one has…
Locke, J. and Laslett, P. (1988) Locke: Two Treatises of Government. United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press.…
Locke’s description of government has been used in our modern world, especially in the United States, which include government roles and citizen liberties. First, Locke’s states three roles of the government: an established law, judge that determines “all differences” in the law, and enforcement of those laws. In our country, these roles represent the three branches of our government including executive, legislative, and judicial. Also, the majority of the citizens make the decision of the entire government which is…
The stipulation, “In order to obtain for Ottoman citizens an education of a homogeneous and uniform character, the official schools will be open, their instruction will be free, and all nationalities will be admitted,” is from what document?…
In the midst of the Enlightenment Age, a time when philosophers such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Thomas Hobbes, and John Locke were forming new ideas of society and government, a war had started between Britain and its American colonies. The colonists claimed their government was failing to provide for its citizens, sharing Locke’s views of the natural rights of men that a government was meant to…
In Second Treatise, Locke states that the world is given “to mankind in common” by God, yet his argument is for the right of private property with the justifications of: the property must be designated for the property to be useful, those who labor for the property own it through their labor, and any man can take as much property as he wants as long as the property is used and not spoiled.…
In this essay, I would like to discuss Locke’s Second Treatise of Government section 131. This essay is divided into four parts. In the first part, I would like to interpret what Locke’s position is developed in section 131 and in the next part, I would like to discuss how Locke supports this position by tracing back to the origin of government. Then in the third part, I would like to point out some flaws in this position by arguing evidences provided by Locke to support his position. The last part of my essay is the conclusion.…
Ownership is a huge theme in John Locke’s Second Treatise of Government. When our Founding Fathers were inspired by John Locke’s theories, they have never believed how this nation would result into be. John Lock expresses in his work that one owns their property if one works for it. He also writes about how when someone enters a state of war, then both parties have the right to fight for what they believe in. Now, that Americans live in a society where their liberties and freedom have taken away, is it possible to break away? For John Lock, he believes that is impossible to break away from a government or society because one was born into a government and by default one must obey our fathers.…
Locke presents several key ideas in his Treatise; his notions on the origins of property, usurpations, tyranny, and the dissolution of government provide the key arguments for this work. The chronologically first, Of Property, discusses Locke’s theories on the origins of property. He claims that in nature, what makes something the property of one man as opposed to all mankind is the labor he puts into it. He has right to all he can use without letting withered, and should he chose; he may barter what is left for something that will not perish. Locke believes this to be the origin of money.…
In The Second Treatise of Government, Locke asserts that humans are born with a natural right to life, liberty and property. He further explains that these individuals are bound morally to respect the rights of every member of that society. Yet he acknowledges advances in society, which impair such state to exist. Locke believes that not all members of the state of nature will respect those rights and further emphasizes the need to create a social contract, which protects these rights. For the only reason a state, or government is established is to protect themselves from anyone who chooses to act immorally consequently preventing them from preserving their natural rights.…
Which means almost no government is actually legitimate. Whereas modern theories may insist that consent has only consented if it's delicate and voluntary, Locke’s concept of consent was a lot more broad. Locke then says the decision to enter political society is a per ant one for only one reason: society will have to be protected and if people can revoke their consent to help protect it, the act of consent would pointless since the political community would fail.…
In this essay, I will argue that Locke’s notion of consent, especially consent of the governed makes revolution more likely to occur within society. Locke promotes the right of the people to overthrow leaders who betray them. Furthermore, the executive and legislative entities coexist autonomously to keep each other in check (this can be seen as an early form of checks-and-balances). Locke insists that if a leader breaks the community’s trust, the people can and should replace him immediately. Correspondingly, if the legislative body does not attain the needs of the people, it should be dissolved and replaced with whatever form of government the people think best.…
c. John Locke's theory of contractual government: authority comes from the consent of the governed…
Many of John Locke’s theories revolved around the relationship between a government and its subjects. Locke asserted that it was“the right of a people to change a government that did not protect the natural rights of life, liberty and property"(Impact of Enlightenment on…
This might be one of the most important readings in our book and its John Locke’s Second Treatise on Government which describes popular sovereignty and the natural rights of people. John Trenchard and Thomas Gibbons also contributed to our readings by…