Locke Essay Research Paper To understand classic

Locke Essay, Research Paper

To understand classic liberalism we must focus on Locke’s idea of political power and his political model as well as his economic model. Locke defines political power as ” a right of making laws with penalties of Death, and consequently all less penalties, for regulating and preserving property, and of employing the force of the community, in the execution of such laws, and in the defense of the common-wealth from foreign injury, and all this only for the Publick Good”(Wooten, #2). This idea of thought explains Locke’s main idea in the Second Treatise of Government, that everything is best for the individual rather than for the community.

Locke’s idea of politics starts off with a basis of men and freedom suggested to us in the law of nature. The buffer between man and brutes is the law of nature, which is a law of reason.

“Our faculty of reason is fitted to discover what that law says, what it measures and standards of conduct are (Yolton, 65). Men rise above these beasts only because of that faculty. It is through the law of nature, reason, and humanity that each one of us makes with ” all the rest of Mankind…one community, makes up one society distinct from all other creatures” (1.#128).

So it is people in a community that come together for the strength of the individual. Locke states that man must reside in the community to reap the benefits. If a man opposes this, then he faces the dilemma of giving up power for safety. In leaving the community of mankind in order to form smaller associates of civil societies, natural man gives up the power of preserving himself and mankind, giving that power to the civil society “to be regulated by laws made by society”(1.#129). In the same way, the move into civil society requires each man to give up his right to punish or kill as an individual. Criminals in this society are to be brought forth to the community’s authority. Locke states that in leaving the great community of mankind and joining a civil society, we do not cease to be men, or even cease to be members of mankind (Yolton, 65). He quits his executive power of the law of nature and resigns it to the public. “So each man makes himself subject to the civil law and finds his freedom in voluntary obedience.” (Britannica ,1998.) “The other power a man has in a state of Nature is the power to punish the crimes committed a state of natur In civil society, we are answerable to the whole community. In each community there are rules, these are set forth by authorities. However these rules are made up by the publick, or everyone in the community. These rules are eyed, the whole community is an umpire. “The community must preserve the property, and in order there-unto punish the offences of all those of that society, there, is political society where every one of the members hath quitted this natural power, resigned it up to the hands of the community. And thus all private judgement of every particular member be excluded, the community comes to be a umpire, and by understanding indifferent rules, men authorized by the community, decided all differences, and punishes those offences”(1.#87).

The function and the purpose of Locke’s civil society is protection of life, liberty, and possessions. An essential to making it work is trust between the government in the community and is in place of a ruler who fails to secure the public good. So the rulers authority is conditional rather than absolut. Each man establishes his right to property by “mixing his labour.” So when everyone contributes to the community they in turn are given the fruits of everyone elses labor. He has the right to expect political power to be used to preserve his property, in his own person and in his possessions, and the right to freedom of thought, speech, and worship.

Locke’s political system was one that was considered mixed constitution. The legislative should be an elected body, but the executive remains a single individual, the monarch–and argues for s separation of legislative and executive powers (Britannica, 1998). Locke states that government cannot possess absolute arbitrary power over the lives and property of the people. This limitation of power is to ensure that there is preservation of life, liberty, property cannot be used to destroy, enslave, or impoverish it’s subjects (Hentrich, 775). Locke does state though that people always have the right to withdraw their support and overthrow the government if it fails to fulfill their trust. “To ask how you may be guarded from or injury on that side, where the strongest hand is to do it, is presently the voice of faction and rebellion.

Locke’s model for economics, isn’t discussed much, except in brief periods. Locke’s main focal point for economics was one of property. As before, I have shown that in the community others are obligated to respect private property under the law of nature. His model supports that everyone in the community has a skill and when that skill is harnessed and used, each individual contributes something different to the community Locke says that individuals could give away, exchange, sell, or accumulate property. Locke’s justification for such economic right was that human labor produced almost all value, with nature providing only the raw materials, and the abundance or surplus did not lessen the value, it just increased the amount for the others. “Locke argued