Summary Of John Locke Consent

Decent Essays
Most of Locke’s essay was about the importance of consent from the people and how crucial it is for a legislature to be established. For that reason, Locke would explain injustice as the complete opposite of that. If the commonwealth has voted and for their preference of hierarchy or representative, they justice has been served. However, if a government doesn’t follow those requests, then it is then labeled as unjust. Similarly, government corruption is explained by the lack of consideration for the “good of the people.” If legislature decides on an action that ultimately violates the law of nature, Locke would consider it a corruption of government. In Locke’s first block of the guidelines of a legislative, he states that “the law of nature

Related Documents

  • Superior Essays

    Locke states that the government is obligated to serve people, namely by protecting life, liberty, and property at all cost. In Locke’s eyes the purpose of government is to secure and protect the natural rights and in return the people must obey the laws created by their rulers. This basis of an arrangement is detailed in the American Declaration of Independence as well. The document explains that when and if a government becomes destructive “it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it;” this would be know as Locke’s social contract between the government and its’ people. In this contract Locke details that the citizens of a state would turn over their power to an established government when that said government signs a contract declaring that its’ members will have the common interest in mind.…

    • 1261 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Locke believed that all men were created equal and should be treated that way. He stated, “We must consider, what state all men are naturally in, and that is, a state of perfect freedom to order their actions, and dispose of their possessions and persons…” (Doc A) He’s saying that all men are in a perfect state of freedom to do as they want, which includes creating their own government and to get rid of the governments that are failing. “They have not only a right to get out of a failed government but to prevent it.”…

    • 631 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Compared to other major governments around the world, America’s government is relatively new, being only approximately 300 years old. In the 1700s, as colonists began to permanently settle in the New World, the monarchy of the British Empire, specifically King George III and Parliament, controlled America’s foreign policy and trade relations. After defending the colonies against the French and Native Americans, Parliament needed to enforce duties on the colonists to help pay reparations lost during the war. To do this and raise revenue, the British legislature passed a series of taxes on paper goods, sugar, glass, and tea; Parliament also began placing stricter regulations the colonist’s trade.…

    • 781 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    He places explicit limits on the power of government over its subjects. Raising ideas such as property rights and consent, Locke states that the primary role of a government is to preserve society, ie. a harmonious state in which men are guaranteed protection under the law, and property. (262) To him, if a government descends into tyrannical rule, a state in which those in power act in self interest or beyond the law, it is the populace’s…

    • 803 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Social Contract And Popular Sovereignty The social contracts stems from individuals coming together to form a sort of agreement to, which is central in making a society. Not only form a society but to make it a better place. Law, State and the constitution are all by-products of society; here we see the stepping-stone from people being people, to it becoming sovereign. All theories conclude that people make this social contract for protection of their being and also their property.…

    • 896 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    John Locke’s views from the Second Treatise of Government In the Second Treatise of Government, John Locke expressed many of his own views on the relation of the individual to society and more specifically the rights one has in society and the responsibilities these rights come with. First, he explains the right of ontological equality. Each person has the right and ability to execute natural law at will: “the equality of men by nature (Locke 147).…

    • 1573 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Decent Essays

    John Locke was an Enlightenment thinker and he believed in Natural rights (life liberty and property). Locke, also believed in the right to overthrow and establish a new government if the current government fails to protect the people. (Document A) The Two Treatises on Government, written by John Locke and The Declaration of Independence, written by Thomas Jefferson both share common ideas for a democratic government. The government is to protect the people and their natural rights and the people have the right to overthrow the government if they fail to protect their rights.…

    • 137 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Great Essays

    An astounding fact about the United States government is that someone who received only half of all American votes is now in charge of leading the country. In 2012, President Obama won the election with 303 of the 509 Electoral Votes, yet 48.4% of people still voted for Mitt Romney. While this result represents the resolution of an undemocratic form of election, the Electoral College, if the United States practiced pure democracy (similarly to ancient Athenians) the result would have remained the same. However, the fact remains that the United States is not a democracy; it is a democratic republic. While the Constitution cannot be looked at as a purely democratic document, it was never written with that intention.…

    • 1585 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Human behavior is defined as the array of every physical action and observable emotion associated with individuals, as well as the human race as a whole. In other words, our behavior is influenced by our emotions towards the things around us and our own self-interest. The root of our self-interest stems from the set of value society places on possessions. With that said, humans cannot be trusted to be productive in society due to out innate behavior and greed John Locke, an optimist during the Glorious Revolution, anonymously published the Second Treatise of Government in 1698; an essay that defines human rationality. The “state of nature” mentioned in this essay is a fantasy society where there is no government, perfect equality, and freedom.…

    • 679 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Imagine a Haitian family, who has risked their lives to cross the expanse of ocean over seven hundred miles long in order to pursue a better life once they reach the shores of Florida. They desire refugee status and one day, citizenship. Upon reaching the end of their perilous journey, they are allowed to stay in the United States, but are immediately issued fines that they cannot possibly afford to pay, simply for indecent exposure and disturbing the peace. Though most people would consider this to be an undesirable outcome, in his work “Second Treatise of Government” published in 1689, John Locke suggests that in order to enjoy the advantages one receives from living under a government’s control, one must consent to the laws of that government. In this paper I shall discuss Locke’s idea of tacit consent, and consider its weaknesses as well as possible strengths if one were examine Locke’s “tacit consent” with a fairly generous interpretation of his intended meaning; Locke’s argument will then be compared to the views of the twentieth century philosophers Martin Luther King Jr and Martha Nussbaum.…

    • 1543 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In Locke’s view the law of nature dictates two things, self-preservation, and preservation of all others as long as those goals don’t conflict. That is the most we can give to government when we create on out of political society. Since that is all the possible power people can give to the government the legislative powers necessarily limited to preserving the political society which set it up. That general limitation breaks down into four specifications which explains why people can’t remain in the state of nature.…

    • 1011 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Hobbes and Locke both thought government was unfortunate, but essential. Thomas Hobbes wrote in Leviathan that without law there would be chaos. He writes “The notions of Right and Wrong, Justice and Injustice have there no place. Where there is no common power,…

    • 1225 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Locke, therefore, disqualifies any doctrine that sovereignty belonged by nature a man of destiny. According to him, there is no political power at the state of society, resulting from free contract by men to make laws. However, the laws are legitimate only if they accurately reflect the natural rights of man are his personal freedom, but also his right to property and the right to exchange the…

    • 1254 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Thomas Hobbes, John Locke and Karl Marx were three opposing philosophers during the Enlightenment with their own interpretations on government and people. Hobbes believed society needed an absolute monarchy, “to confer all their power and strength upon one man.” Locke said that human nature had natural rights, and were therefore “not to be under the will or legislative authority of man.” Finally, Marx believed in communism, in which belongings are public. All of the philosophies had their own relation to the social contract, which was introduced by Jean Jacques Rousseau.…

    • 909 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Because it doesn’t matter how much we complain about poor management of the state’ dealings and/or regulations imposed to us. There are no excuses for resisting power because it is the only thing between us and what we most want to avoid, the State of Nature. John Locke had a different approach as to the kind of place the State of Nature is, and consequently his argument concerning the Social Contract and the relationship between men and authority varies. According to Locke, the State of Nature is the natural condition of mankind.…

    • 1284 Words
    • 6 Pages
    • 3 Works Cited
    Superior Essays