People Power

Like Thomas Hobbes, John Locke discusses the idea of the commonwealth, or as he more frequently titles it political or civil society. Locke believes that man is born with a title to perfect freedom. This concept of freedom is a power given by the law of Nature to man for the preservation of, “his property, that is, his life, liberty and estate, against the injuries and attempts of other men”(Locke 350). Man is thus given the power to judge and punish those who have infringed upon his rights. Wherever a group of men quit this executive power of the law of nature, and give it to the public, political or civil society will emerge. “And this puts men out of a state of Nature into that of a commonwealth, by setting up a judge on Earth, with authority to determine all controversies.”(352) Man chooses to enter into this civil society with the belief that it will make laws that are for the public good. By doing this man is consenting to the rule of the political body and has vowed to submit to the determination of the majority. It is here only by man’s consent that he can be part of civil society. Locke feels that absolute monarchy is inconsistent with this concept of civil society and therefore can never be a form of civil government. It places no common authority over all and thus, by investing the authority in one person, the entire system suffers. Locke feels that only through a commonwealth can man live in peace and harmony with his fellow man without the threat of harm or theft of property from others.

The concept of consent is extremely important to Locke’s theory. Without this consent man cannot be subjected to the political power of another because by nature, men are all free, equal and independent. By confirming to unite into a community man strips himself of his natural liberties and consents to the laws of civil society. Therefore, Locke asserts, “For when any number of men have, by the consent of every individual, made a community, they have thereby made that community one body, with a power to act as one body, which is only by the will and determination of the majority.”(353) Meaning that each man gives up his own private judgments in favor of those of the majority. There are two forms of consent according to Locke, express and tacit consent. Express consent is that which man enters into a s...

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...lth. This will dissolve the society and thus the government of that society cannot remain. Governments can also be dissolved from within. When the state ceases to function for the people, it is dissolved, and may be replaced. This occurs when the legislative is changed or usurped by a tyrannical executive power, when the legislative or executive breaches its trust, or when the executive ignores its own duties and renders the law meaningless, reducing society to chaos.

The Second Treatise of Government places sovereignty into the hands of the people. The government has no sovereignty of its own, for it exists to serve the people. Wherever the law ends, tyranny begins according to Locke. Locke ends by noting that, as long as society lasts, the power that each individual gives it cannot revert back to the individual, and, so long as any government lasts, the power that the society gives the legislative cannot revert back to the society. Either of these institutions may be destroyed by the reversion of the powers vested in them, people always being free to "erect a new form, or under the old form place it in new hands, as they think good."(380)