You are in a state of nature, but people keep killing your friends and family, stealing your freedoms, and stealing your property. They keep bringing a destructive state of war into your perfect state of nature. So how do we solve this problem? Today, we will see how John Locke addresses this issue in his second treatise of government. I'm Christian Murray, and this is the Founders Club.
In our first video, Locke knocked down the foundation for absolute monarchy, which was the divine right of kings. In our second video, Locke built a new foundation for government. which was his idea of natural rights in a state of nature.
Remember, the state of nature is the state all men are naturally in, and that is a state of perfect freedom to order their actions. The problem is the state of nature is unstable, and it always eventually leads to a state of war. Men always turn a state of peace, goodwill, mutual assistance, and preservation into a state of enmity. malice, violence, and mutual destruction. So how do we break this vicious cycle?
Locke's answer in his Second Treatise of Government is the concept of civil society. God, having made man such a creature that in his own judgment it was not good for him to be alone, put him under strong obligations of necessity, convenience, and inclination to drive him into society, as well as fitted him with understanding and language to continue and enjoy it. Warlock!
The state of war is the opposite of God's will for us, and so men voluntarily come together to create a social contract so as to obey God, protect their natural rights, and enact God's plan to solve the problem of the state of war. This provides for us a legitimate form of government according to Locke. By forming this social contract, we leave the state of nature, give up some of our natural rights to a representative authority for new civil rights, and thereby enter into A civil society.
We are not giving up some of our natural rights for nothing. Civil society provides three main benefits over the state of nature. Civil society provides, first, an established, settled, known law.
Second, a known and indifferent judge. And third, power to back and support a sentence. The basis of our civil society provides for judgment, whereby we exercise the authority normally reserved to God.
but in the pious effort to fulfill his will for humanity. For Locke, those who are united into one body and have a common established law and adjudicature to appeal to, with authority to decide controversies between them and punish offenders, are in civil society one with another. Now the people entering into civil society get to choose their form of government, so long as it fulfills the laws provided by God. They may choose a democracy, an oligarchy, or even a monarchy. The majority always gets to decide because this is just practical.
The majority always gets to change the form of government if they want to, so long as it keeps within the providential order. The power that the government exercises is political power. For Locke, political power is the right of making laws with penalties of death, and consequently all less penalties for the regulating and preserving of property, and of employing the force of the community in the execution of such laws, and in defense of the Commonwealth. from foreign injury. And all this only for the public good.
There are three kinds of political power that Locke focuses on in his second treatise. The legislative, executive, and the federative. The legislative power is the power to make, alter, or repeal laws. The form of government, whether a monarchy, an oligarchy, or a democracy, is always dependent on where the legislative power is placed.
It can be in the hands of the many, the few, or an individual. This is the most important power for Locke. It must be dedicated to the preservation of society.
Everyone must obey the laws created by the legislative power, but there are strings attached. The legislative power must apply the laws equally to everyone, must be created for the good of the people, and they cannot levy taxes on property of the people without their consent. Now the executive power is charged with the detail of carrying the laws into effect and securing their due observance.
This power enforces the laws domestically created by the legislative power, but it may take certain actions that are not in the published law. This isn't breaking them though. It's just taking actions that are not explicitly prescribed by the law.
The executive power has to have room to interpret the present circumstances. Finally, there is the Federative Power, which deals with the community as a whole, in relation to beings outside the community. It is the power of war and peace, leagues and alliances, and all the transactions with all persons and communities without the Commonwealth. This power is essentially the power over foreign policy, and also perhaps immigration.
Locke states that this power is typically found in the Executive Power, but he makes it separate. This is so that the good of the society does not get stuck in debate among the domestic powers and in a gridlock. One cannot hold the good of the Commonwealth hostage to the interest of the other powers. Now Locke doesn't have a distinct judicial power in his government to weigh these laws or to reign in the power of government. He takes it for granted that judging is to be done in keeping with the law God has provided for human peace and prosperity, for the increase of the kingdom of God, so to speak.
Even though these powers are delegated to the government, The supreme power over all still rests with the people, at least in determining if the social contract is being kept. The civil state only exists to protect and preserve the welfare of the people. But what if it fails to do that? A civil state may fail to do these things for a variety of reasons. When this happens, the state has created a state of war against its own people.
This is tyranny. Locke states that tyranny is the exercise of power to which nobody can have a right. That is what happens when someone employs the power he has in his hands, not for the good of those who are under it, but for his own private individual advantage. When someone does this, he stops being an officer of the law, and because he acts without authority, he may rightly be opposed.
When the government becomes tyrannical and creates a state of war against its own people, the people are given the right to remove that government and establish a new one. For Locke, however, It is wrong to use force against anything except unjust and unlawful force. Whoever opposes a government for any other reason draws on himself a just condemnation from both God and man. It also should be noted that the posterity of the creators of a civil society does not get to throw up the bonds of government arbitrarily and create a new one. They are actually accepting the social contract by accepting the benefits of this civil society created by their ancestors.
Once again there must be tyranny. or unjust and unlawful force to justify revolution. Locke says that the people must make the ultimate determination to themselves, which belongs to all mankind, whether they have just cause to make their appeal to heaven.
Locke's ideas changed the world. A government is now legitimate when it serves the good of its people, and it judges rightly to fulfill the order that God provided. The role of government is to protect your rights and end the state of war.
And when it fails to do this, It is no longer legitimate. Thomas Jefferson wrote that the King of England had come into the state of war with the people of the American colonies, who as a result were no longer his subjects. The Declaration may appeal to other nations, but it is also an appeal to Heaven, or at least nature and nature's God.
These bonds of affection had to be dissolved because of the King's tyrannical rule. But what do you guys think of Locke's ideas? Do you think that Thomas Jefferson and the colonists rightly applied them?
Let us know in the comments below. Well, I think that's all we have for this video. So, if you like this video, hit that like button. If you like the channel and want to become a Founders Club member, hit that subscribe button.
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