Introduction
John Locke (1632–1704) is among the
most influential political philosophers of the modern period. In the Two
Treatises of Government, he defended the claim that men are by nature free
and equal against claims that God had made all people naturally subject to a
monarch. He argued that people have rights, such as the right to life, liberty,
and property, that have a foundation independent of the laws of any particular
society. Locke used the claim that men are naturally free and equal as part of
the justification for understanding legitimate political government as the
result of a social contract where people in the state of nature conditionally
transfer some of their rights to the government in order to better ensure the
stable, comfortable enjoyment of their lives, liberty, and property. Since
governments exist by the consent of the people in order to protect the rights
of the people and promote the public good, governments that fail to do so can
be resisted and replaced with new governments. Locke is thus also important for
his defense of the right of revolution. Locke also defends the principle of
majority rule and the separation of legislative and executive powers. In the Letter
Concerning Toleration, Locke denied that coercion should be used to bring
people to (what the ruler believes is) the true religion and also denied that
churches should have any coercive power over their members. Locke elaborated on
these themes in his later political writings, such as the Second Letter on
Toleration and Third Letter on Toleration. This paper will seek to
explain John Locke’s advocacy for governmental separation of powers and the
belief that revolution is not only a right but an obligation in some
circumstances
A BIOGRAPHY OF JOHN LOCKE
(1632-1704)
John
Locke was born on August 29th, 1632 in England and lived to became one of the
most influential people in England and, perhaps, one of the most influential
people of the 17th century. Before his death on October 28th, 1704 he would
earn the title as the Father of liberal philosophy. His ideas would also be
used as a keystone for the revolution of the North American colonies from
England.
Locke
had many prominent friends who were nobles in government and also highly
respected scholars of the times. He was good friends with the Earl of
Shaftesbury and he was given government jobs which he served with Shaftesbury.
Locke
lived in France for a while and returned to troubled times in England. In 1679
his friend the Earl was tried for treason. Although Shaftesbury was acquitted,
the Earl decided to flee England anyway to escape further persecution. He fled
to Holland where William and Mary ruled but had some claim to the English
throne. Owing to his close association with the Earl, Locke also fled to
Holland in 1683. He returned to England in about 1688 when William and Mary
were invited to retake the reign of England in what historians call the
Bloodless Revolution. Eventually Locke returned to Oates in Essex where he
retired. He lived there until his death in 1704.
TWO TREATISES OF GOVERNMENT
In
February 1690 the book entitled Two Treatises of Government was
published. In these treatises Locke considers the origins of civil government. As population increases in relation to the
supply of land rules are needed beyond those which the moral law or law of
nature supplies. Locke suggests that whilst the moral law is always valid it is
not always kept; this gives rise to problems of social order. In a state of
nature all men equally take upon themselves the right to punish transgressors.
What might be called civil societies originate where, for the better
administration of the law in relation to the protection of life, liberty, and
property, men agree to delegate this function to certain officers. Thus the
government of civil societies is initiated by an implicit, but effective,
"social contract".
Locke saw the origin of civil society by such agreement as inevitably involving
the associated consent to be ruled, in many things, by the majority opinion
within the society. Locke did however consider that certain "natural
rights" were not prejudiced by the formation of the civil society and
should remain inviolable.
To better avoid the emergence of tyranny through legislation Locke advocated a
system of checks and balances in government. He saw governance as being
comprised of three aspects, Legislative, Executive, and Federative.
Locke in his Two Treatises of Government sets out to dismantle the theory of
divine right of kin. In this work Locke argues that sovereignty is not vested
by divine right in the royal state but rests with the people. States power can
be supreme but only, in Locke's view, if it operates within the bounds of civil
and "natural" law.
Locke saw the powers as such government as being limited, such powers also
involve reciprocal obligations. Governments moreover can be modified or
rescinded by the authority which conferred them. Locke maintained, in his Two
Treatises of Government published just as it was just after an English
revolution (for which Locke was to be something of an apologist), that
revolution was not only a right but was often an effective obligation where
states denied the operation of civil and natural law.
JOHN LOCKE’S ADVOCACY FOR
SEPARATION OF POWER
In
Locke's conception, a proper government exercises three distinct and separate
powers, the legislative, executive, and federative power of the commonwealth.
The
first power of government to be established is the legislative power, which is
that which has a right to direct how the force of the commonwealth shall be
employed for preserving the community and the members of it. There are several
conditions by which it maintains its legitimacy. First, those exercising the
legislative power are chosen and appointed by the citizens. Second, they govern
by "declared and received laws [i.e., the rule of law], and not by
extemporary dictates. Third, these laws are only interpreted by known
authorized judges. Forth, it cannot take from any man any part of his property
[i.e., collect taxes] without his own consent [i.e., taxation without
representation], since the preservation of property is the end of government.
And finally, it cannot transfer the power of making laws to any other hands,
for it being but a delegated power from the people, they who have it cannot
pass it over to others.
Once
the legislative force creates laws, there arises the need of an executive power
which should see to the execution of the laws.
For the legislators not being able to foresee and provide by laws for
all that may be useful to the community till the legislative can conveniently
be assembled to provide for it the good of society requires that several things
should be left to the discretion of him that has the executive power.
The
third power of government, the federative, arises from the fact that, although
in relation to one another the members of the commonwealth are governed by the
laws the society, yet the whole community is one body in the state of Nature in
respect of all other states or persons out of its community, i.e., all
commonwealths are in the state of Nature one with another. Out of this
consideration, the power of the federative branch, which one may call natural,
because it is that which answers to the power every man naturally had before he
entered into society contains the power of war and peace, leagues and
alliances, and all the transactions with all persons and communities without
the commonwealth.
JOHN LOCKE’S IDEA OF REVOLUTION
John
Locke believes that revolution is not only a right but an obligation in some
circumstances. Men leave the state of nature and establish a civil society when
they voluntarily give their natural right to self defense to a common public
authority (Kane, 1995). They do this in order to acquire mutual protection of
their lives, liberties, and estates from those who in a state of nature would
be of danger to them, by means of placing the retaliatory use of physical force
in under established, settled, known law, interpreted by an indifferent judge,
with the power to support the sentence when right.
Thus
underlying the laws of the government are the powers granted to individuals in
the state of nature by the law of nature, transferred by their common consent
to a government authority. The obligations of the law of Nature cease not in
society, but only in many cases are drawn closer, and have by human laws, known
penalties annexed to them to enforce their obligation. Locke maintains that the
proper function of law is to create, rather than restrict, personal freedom,
that the law of a government is not an instrument to restrain the freedom of a
rational being, but is a framework required to preserve and enlarge it. For where
there is no law, there is no freedom. For liberty is to be free from restraint
and violence from others, which cannot be where there is no law. In other
words, law, in Locke's view, exists only to stop the deeds of those who would
transgress on another's freedom, for the purpose of preserving that freedom.
Such laws are not arbitrary, since nobody can transfer to another [i.e., the
government] more power than he has in himself.
Such
a government is legitimate, because its powers derive from its citizens, who
give their consent to its formation. By agreeing with other men, to join and
unite into a community for their comfortable, safe, and peaceable living, one
amongst another, in a secure enjoyment of their properties, and a greater
security against any that are not of it, such men have given their express
consent to the government of such a community. In addition, any man who is born
within a particular government and accepts the protection provided by it, thereby
gives a tacit consent as to the legitimacy of that government.(Gordon, 1967).
The
last major topic treated by Locke in the Second Treatise is the right of the
citizens to revolt against tyrannies, i.e., governments wherein the governor
makes not the law, but his will, the rule, and his commands and actions are not
directed to the preservation of the properties of his people, but the
satisfaction of his own ambition, revenge, covetousness, or any other irregular
passion. Such a ruler ceases in that to be a magistrate, and acting without
authority may be opposed, as any other man who by force invades the right of
another. Thus it is plain that shaking off a power which force, and not right,
hath set over any one, thought it hath the name of rebellion, yet is no offence
before God. Prince's owe subjection to the laws of God and Nature, so that the
use of force without authority [i.e., the authority deriving from the law of
nature] always puts him that uses it into a state of war as the aggressor, and
renders him liable to be treated accordingly. By this breach of trust they forfeit the power
the people had put into their hands for quite contrary ends, and it devolves to
the people, who have a right to resume their original liberty, and by the establishment
of a new legislative provide for their own safety and security, which is the
end for which they are in society. In short, the people are absolved from
obedience when illegal attempts are made upon their liberties or properties
because self-defense is a part of the law of Nature.
John
Locke encouraged governmental checks and balances. He also viewed political
revolution as not only a right but also in some circumstances and obligation.
In the United States, those ideas helped inspire and form the Declaration of
Independence and the Constitution of the United States. (Aaron, 1937)
Conclusion
The
separation of power john locks advocates have made it possible for obligation
in revolution to be possible this is why separation
of powers is the key to the workings of American government, no democratic
system exists with an absolute separation of powers or an absolute lack
of separation of
powers. Governmental powers and responsibilities intentionally overlap;
they are too complex and interrelated to be neatly compartmentalized. As a
result, there is an inherent measure of competition and conflict among the
branches of government. Throughout American history, there also has been an ebb and flow of preeminence among the governmental
branches. Such experiences suggest that where power resides is
part of an evolutionary process. Although some explanations of the right of revolution leave
open the possibility of its exercise as an individual right, it was clearly
understood to be a collective right under English constitutional and political
theory.
Reference
Aaron, Richard I. 1937 (rpt. 1955). John Locke.
Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Appadorai, A. (2003). The Substance of politics. New
Delhi: Oxford University Press.
Chaturvedi, A. K. (2006). Dictionary of Political
Science. New Delhi: Academic Publishers.
Chappell, Vere, ed. 1995. The Cambridge Companion to
Locke. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Clapp, James Gordon, 1967. "John Locke."
In The Encyclopedia of Philosophy.Ed. Paul Edwards. New York: MacMillan and
Free Press. Vol. 4.
Kane, R. H. 1995. "Socinianism."In
Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy.Ed. Robert Audi.Cambridge University Press.
Locke, John, 1956. The Second Treatise of Government
and A Letter Concerning Toleration. Ed. with intro.by J. W. Gough. New York:
MacMillan..
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