Treatise I, Chapter X

Filmer claims that wherever there is a multitude of people, there will be one who is the heir to Adam’s monarchical power. This implies, counters Locke, that there will be one king who presently rules over all the kings in power, which means that either this right of being Adam’s political descendant is not necessary to justify the power presently held by rulers, or that they are all unlawfully in power, and accordingly, the multitude has no need to conscientiously obey their governments – a conclusion that Filmer would surely wish to avoid, as well as one that Locke implies is unacceptable to his own theory of government.

Moseley, Alexander. John Locke: Political Philosophy. https://iep.utm.edu/locke-po/

or else it is not the title whereby kings rule, and have a right to obedience from their subjects, and then kings are kings without it, and this dream of the natural sovereignty of Adam’s heir is of no use to obedience and government: for if kings be a right to dominion and the obedience of their subjects who are not, nor can possibly be, heirs to Adam, what use is there of such a title, when we are obliged to obey without it?

Locke, John. Two Treatises of Government. https://www.yorku.ca/comninel/courses/3025pdf/Locke.pdf

Treatise II. Chapter I.:

He defines political power as the power of making laws and executing penalties, the preservation of property, and of employing the force of the community in executing the laws and defending the commonwealth from foreign attack. Power, he stresses, must only be used for the public good.

Moseley, Alexander. John Locke: Political Philosophy. https://iep.utm.edu/locke-po

Chapter II.:

“Executioner of the Law of Nature” (§8) to kill murderers and seek reparation from thieves.

Moseley, Alexander. John Locke: Political Philosophy. https://iep.utm.edu/locke-po

“For ’tis not every Compact that puts an end to the State of Nature between men.” -John Locke

Ch. III.

But the state of nature is distinguishable from the state of war, a dissimilarity Locke criticises followers of Thomas Hobbes for not making. The state of nature is governed by peace, goodwill, preservation, and mutual assistance, whereas the state of war is a condition of enmity, malice, violence, and mutual destruction.

Moseley, Alexander. John Locke: Political Philosophy. https://iep.utm.edu/locke-po

Ch IV.

man’s liberty in society is to be under no other legislative power but that established by consent and under no other will or power but what the legislative enacts according to the trust put in it…

…if a man aggresses against another, he loses all rights in the just war fought against his aggression, and thus may he be rightly enslaved.

Moseley, Alexander. John Locke: Political Philosophy. https://iep.utm.edu/locke-po

Ch. V.

“every man has a Property in his own Person.” (§27). -John Locke

Ownership gives a man an entitlement to do with his resources as he pleases, although in this chapter, Locke is ready to remind his readers of the duty they bear to others, for those who waste their (non-durable) resources “rob others” of the benefits they could have produced for the community;

Moseley, Alexander. John Locke: Political Philosophy. https://iep.utm.edu/locke-po

Ch. VI

in comparison with Filmer, who claimed that no men can be free because of the subjection to their parents, Locke asserts that the development of a man’s reason frees him from their protection. To turn children out of the home before their reason has developed sufficiently is to throw them out amongst the beasts and into a wretched state.

Moseley, Alexander. John Locke: Political Philosophy. https://iep.utm.edu/locke-po

Ch. VII

Locke notes, deploying the traditional Aristotelian thesis that society stems from sexual desire, reproduction, and then employment (that is, man and woman come together, they reproduce, and employ servants – and gain slaves captured in just wars)

In removing themselves from the state of nature, men hand over the power to punish to the executive; but where the process of appeal is lacking, men remain – or at least their social relations remain – in the state of nature.

Moseley, Alexander. John Locke: Political Philosophy. https://iep.utm.edu/locke-po

“to think that Men are so foolish that they take care to avoid what mischiefs may be done them by Pole-Cats, or Foxes, but are content, nay think it Safety, to be devoured by Lions.” -John Lock (Lions are kings, absolute monarchs, magistrates without consent of the ruled)

Ch. VIII

Consent of the governed is the only justifiable form of government, but of course critics are going to ask for evidence for consensual government. Locke replies that the lack of evidence does not imply that early governments were not formed consensually, but because people were initially equal in the state of nature, it can be deduced that they consented to put rulers over and above them.

Moseley, Alexander. John Locke: Political Philosophy. https://iep.utm.edu/locke-po

Any power given to the government was given to secure the public good and safety and the defence of immature societies from external aggression, but once the legislators or executors of the law sought to use power for their own interests then it becomes vital for men to understand the origins of government and the limitations to its power, so that they may find methods to prevent such abuses of power.

Moseley, Alexander. John Locke: Political Philosophy. https://iep.utm.edu/locke-po

…just as children upon reaching maturity are free to leave their parents, so too are men free to leave their society.

Moseley, Alexander. John Locke: Political Philosophy. https://iep.utm.edu/locke-po

Ch. IX

The state of nature lacks established, known and settled laws, a known and indifferent judge, and the power to give a judge execution of the law.

Moseley, Alexander. John Locke: Political Philosophy. https://iep.utm.edu/locke-po

“And were it not for the corruption, and vitiousness of degenerate Men, there would be no need of any other; no necessity that Men should separate from this great and natural Community, and by positive agreements combine into smaller and divided associations.” -John Locke

The corrupt, vicious, and degenerate men who have occupied the SEP has forced “Men” to “separate from this great and natural Community.”

Ch. X

Form of government determined by location.

Ch. XI

“can never have a right to destroy, enslave, or designedly impoverish the subjects.” -John Locke

Its laws must thus conform to the laws of nature and any use of arbitrary or absolute power, or indeed, operating without settled law, [emphasis added] creates a situation worse than the state of nature.

Moseley, Alexander. John Locke: Political Philosophy. https://iep.utm.edu/locke-po

“For then Mankind will be in a far worse condition, than in the State of Nature, if they shall have armed one or a few Men with the joynt power of a Multitude. (§137)” -John Locke

The government cannot take a man’s property without his consent, and since governments need to raise taxes to finance themselves, they can only do so with the consent of the governed.

Moseley, Alexander. John Locke: Political Philosophy. https://iep.utm.edu/locke-po

“Hence it is a mistake to think, that the Supream or Legislative Power of any Commonwealth, can do what it will, and dispose of the Estates of the Subject arbitrarily, or take any part of them at pleasure.” (§137) -John Locke

[The Party’s finances come to mind: Without a financial report, there can be no consent as to the disposition of the finances collected, and we see the spending as conducted “arbitrarily” and “any part” of it done “at pleasure.”]

Ch. XII

There is no need for the legislative to stand all the time (and in the following chapter Locke observes that if it meets frequently it can become dangerous or at least burdensome), but the executive power ought to be permanently in office to ensure that the laws are enforced.

Moseley, Alexander. John Locke: Political Philosophy. https://iep.utm.edu/locke-po

Ch. XIII

The people have the right to alter the legislative; similarly, if the executive stops the legislative from sitting, it effectively declares war on the people (§155). Executive power is held wholly on trust and representation in the legislative should be equal (§157).

Moseley, Alexander. John Locke: Political Philosophy. https://iep.utm.edu/locke-po

Ch. XIV

The executive may use powers of prerogative to ensure the smooth process of legislation, but it ought never to overstep its bounds.

Moseley, Alexander. John Locke: Political Philosophy. https://iep.utm.edu/locke-po

“…the reigns of good princes have always been most dangerous to the liberties of their people…” -John Locke

Ch. XV

Since nature does not give one man power over another, as all men are equal, that power can only be gained over those who wage unjust war upon the peaceful commonwealth.

Moseley, Alexander. John Locke: Political Philosophy. https://iep.utm.edu/locke-po

The agressor “…renders himself liable to be destroied by the injur’d person and the rest of mankind, that will joyn with him in the execution of Justice.” -John Locke

Ch. XVI

Locke thus establishes strict just war code, strictly demarcating non-combatants from combatants, and also the property of conquered combatants and their dependents.

Moseley, Alexander. John Locke: Political Philosophy. https://iep.utm.edu/locke-po

“Conquerors, ’tis true, seldom trouble themselves to make the distinction, but they willingly permit the confusion of War to sweep altogether; but yet this alters not the Right.” -John Locke

Ch. XVII

In a note on usurpation, Locke apparently accepts the usurpation of power by another personality; it only becomes problematic when the usurper adds to his power.

Moseley, Alexander. John Locke: Political Philosophy. https://iep.utm.edu/locke-po

…whoever gets into the exercise of any part of the power by other ways than what the laws of the community have prescribed hath no right to be obeyed, though the form of the commonwealth be still preserved, since he is not the person the laws have appointed, and, consequently, not the person the people have consented to. Nor can such an usurper, or any deriving from him, ever have a title till the people are both at liberty to consent, and have actually consented, to allow and confirm in him the power he hath till then usurped.

Locke, John. Two Treatises of Government. https://www.yorku.ca/comninel/courses/3025pdf/Locke.pdf

[The power must be “usurped” and then confirmed by a free people. The previous usurper, even if appointed by corrupt laws designed by vicious men, must then accept the confirmed will of the people.]

Ch. XVIII

The main point in an usurpation is not how the power was usurped, but whether by it they establish a worse tyranny or greater liberties for the people of the community.

“Tyranny is the exercise of Power beyond Right, which no Body can have a Right to.”

Usurpation followed by greater liberty is preferable to tyranny without usurpation, without the self-defense of the people against unjust laws.

It is a mistake to think this fault is proper only to monarchies. Other forms of government are liable to it as well as that; for wherever the power that is put in any hands for the government of the people and the preservation of their properties is applied to other ends, and made use of to impoverish, harass, or subdue them to the arbitrary and irregular commands of those that have it, there it presently becomes tyranny, whether those that thus use it are one or many. Thus we read of the thirty tyrants at Athens, as well as one at Syracuse; and the intolerable dominion of the Decemviri at Rome was nothing better.

Locke, John. Two Treatises of Government. https://www.yorku.ca/comninel/courses/3025pdf/Locke.pdf

Ch. XIX

A government is thus dissolved if it falls to a foreign power or if there is a civil war, when the government acts illegally or refuses the legislative to sit, or acts contrary to the trust put in it by the people. A people should not wait until the chains are put on them before they rebel.

Moseley, Alexander. John Locke: Political Philosophy. https://iep.utm.edu/locke-po