Locke’s Political Theory

Locke had undoubtedly aimed to defend ideas that are still being debated today. Rather distinctively, Locke portrays sovereignty as belonging and residing with the people. Unlike Hobbes, we see the state of nature as consisting of equality and there is an existence of natural rights that govern behaviour. Yet, the question is to why a society may need a sovereign if the state of nature was so, arguably, peaceful in the first place. Locke argues that this is because there are bound to be some people infringing others’ rights (‘inconveniences’), which will then need to be sanctioned (Laslett 1988). Also, a state and separate judicial, legislative and executive branches are required to protect private property. If the government ceases to act in the interests of the people it represents, then the people can dissolve the government and thus there is no real sovereignty of the government in Locke’s portrayal, unlike Hobbes. The core notion is that of consent; people have to come to an agreement to have a state, government and all the other powers it may then bring (Laslett 1988). Similar to Hobbes’ idea of a social contract, therefore, the people give consent to be governed. This political power is hence not like anything else (such as paternal power).
“No body doubts but an express Consent, of any Man, entring into any Society, makes him a perfect member of that Society, a Subject of that Government” (Laslett 1988, p.119). Thus, in a Lockean view, the very presence of one on the ‘soil’ shows that s/he has given, more specifically, tacit consent. Yet, Locke fails to give any examples that could illustrate this notion and support it any further. As a result, it is inevitable that many questions arise. For instance, one could not know w...

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...t some level of satisfaction with the consent.

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