John Locke’s Two Treatises of Government and Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s Social Contract

In 1981, the nation was a loose confederation of states, which each operated like an independent country. The government had no judicial branch or executive officer. It lacked the authority to enforce its requests for money or troops from states. Since recently earning independence, the founders and public sought to protect the following in the Constitution: freedom of speech, freedom of press, freedom of religion, the right to bear arms, the right to not be subject to unreasonable seizures or searches, the right to not be forced to quarter soldiers, the right to due process of the law, the right to a fast and public trial by jury with counsel, the right to a civil trial by jury, the right to not be subjected to excessive bail and cruel punishment, and protection of state’s rights. Current protections and responsibility of states and Americans found in the U.S. Constitution were based upon John Locke’s Second Treatise of Government, the Magna Carta, and the English Bill of Rights.

While reading the “The Second Treatise of Government,” you can notice and see that John Locke has a strong standing for civil rights as well as helping with the development of the Constitution of the United States. He states that the “consent of the governed,” is basically saying that communities are not put together by the divine right or ruled by. Paternal, familial, and political are types of powers that John Locke mentions that have all have unlike characteristics. He inspired others to believe in and want equal rights and democracy. John Locke talks about the state of nature, which basically states that no one has the power to be ruler of someone, as well as they are able to do what they want in a freely matter. In other words people are born just like anyone else that is born, and should have equally rights to property, health, and liberty, and that no one should have the power over anyone. Everyone should be able to live and enjoy his or her own freedom and wellbeing. However, the state of nature is not a guarantee to have natural laws, which could help with the protecting of one’s property. According to him having your own personal freedom was the true meaning of state of nature. John Locke thought that people were following his faith in human rationality through the declaration of Locke. John Locke states that if the government takes away from others for them to empower them then the people have right and opportunity to go against

In Europe in the late seventeenth to eighteenth century, The Enlightenment took place. The Enlightenment was a time when people began to question the status quo. Many creative philosophers -who were well educated people- would gather and talk about how things are and how they could be. Topics of discussion included views about the economy or government. Three of the most well known and influential philosophers during this time were John Locke, Voltaire, and Mary Wollstonecraft. John Locke was an English philosopher who thought that the government had too much control. He thought that if the government wasn’t so persistent in people's’ everyday lives, then society would become much better for everyone. Voltaire was a French philosopher

When thinking about the role of government in society, everyone has different opinions on what part government should play in their lives. In Locke’s, Second Treatise on Civil Government, the governments primary role is to ensure that people achieve equal natural rights and that they protect the property of its citizens. When beginning to think about that idea, it seems relatively simple and a proper position for the government, and it is, but one must dive deeper into the text and develop ones’ own opinions. Locke’s argument that government should protect natural rights and property is a valid argument with its core components; and the arguments that you are able to point out in it such as using property in a beneficial, and humans being fond of material possessions, helps one understand Locke’s argument and makes it stronger. Being able to relate Locke’s aim of government to present day also enhances the overall scope of this particular Lockean argument.

In the Two Treatises of Government, Locke argues that the purpose of government is to protect the state and the quality of life of the people, and that no ruler should ever have absolute power. To prevent absolute rule, Locke insisted on checks and balances, which the French monarchy lacked. One of Locke’s most controversial points in terms of the old French regime was that government should be selected by the people, rather than be determined by the divine succession based on bloodlines. He argued that the role of the government was to abide by the general will, which meant that the citizens of a state had the power to appoint new leaders when unhappy with the current government. The Two Treatises of Government provided the unhappy and frustrated French citizens with solutions for major issues, as well as justification for acting against the monarchy. In 1789, as a result of Enlightenment influence, the French population acted against the monarchy, and the first stage of the French Revolution began. The reforms made by the French National Assembly such as the elimination of clerical and noble privilege, creation of a constitutional government, limitation of Monarchical power, and enforcement of equality among the citizens, were greatly influenced by Lockean

John Locke was an incredibly encouraging figure in the development of the ideals and methods of political functioning in the United States of America. John Locke applied many of his studies to write one of his most famous and moving works. “The Second Treatises of Government” is the document which ultimately struck the United States in their creation of the Declaration of Independence. In Locke’s work he had focused on the idea that governments shouldn’t be dictated by anyone person, but ultimately should be a united entity in which everyone in the country has a say in what is happening. For example, John Locke believed that the government should be in charge of deciding who should be the leading figure of power and protecting their citizens’ “Life, Liberty, and Property”. He also believed that if the government failed to fulfill their duties of protecting their people and establishing a limit of power for the leading figure of the country, it was the responsibility of the citizens to “overthrow the government.” John Locke kept a similar mindset to that of Hobbes when it comes to the government and its power. Locke’s work and ideas would go on to be highly influential upon Thomas Jefferson during the process of writing the draft of the Declaration of Independence. In this document Jefferson kept very close ties to Locke’s ideas to create what he believed would be the ideal government.

The Enlightenment was an 18th century European movement in which thinkers attempt to apply the principles of reason and scientific method to all aspects of society. During the Enlightenment there were a group of social thinkers in France known as philosophers. Even though John Locke was from Great Britain, the philosophers would often met in Paris to discuss Enlightenment ideas. One Enlightenment philosopher in particular, John Locke, had a tremendous impact on the American and French Revolution. John Locke believed all people are born free and equal with 3 natural rights; life, liberty, and property. With him philosophy, Locke uses his knowledge to help impact the American Revolution through the Declaration of Independence.

Locke argues the illegitimacy of absolute monarchy as a form of government and offers readers a new form of government and civil society wherein individuals surrender their natural rights in exchange for: “the peace,

John Locke “proved to be the most influential philosophical and political thinker of the seventeenth century” (Kagen 213). He lived in a period of great political change; Locke’s upbringing came to influence his philosophies, and these ideas had much significance in regards to the Enlightenment.

Locke believes that all decisions must come from the will or consent of the majority. When forming the government, the best method is to have an elected legislature. When the legislature makes decisions, they will be acting for all of society. Yet, there are limits to the legislative power, as Locke says, “Their power, in the utmost bounds of it, is limited to the public good of the society. It is a power, that hath no other end but preservation, and therefore can never have a right to destroy, enslave, or designedly to impoverish the subjects.” (Locke 71). The legislature also has to have its laws in writing because arbitrary power leads to abuse. Also, it cannot take away peoples’ property without consent. Finally, the legislature cannot transfer away the absolute power to make laws. Locke establishes a strong legislature to protect property

Some of the most influential people during this time, were John Locke, Voltaire, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Baron de Montesquieu, and many more. These men contributed so much to the Enlightenment, not just relating to science but toward the government and politics. John Locke was a leading philosopher and English political theorist who focused on the structures of government. Locke states that if a government did not protect these right, that the people had the right to revolution. Locke only supported a small part of the government that protected those rights.

The Enlightenment saw many great thinkers, but maybe no other individuals had a greater impact on Western political development than John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Locke and Rousseau, at the core of their arguments, believed that mankind creates a social contract within society. However, Rousseau and Locke differ in their exact view of the social contract, but both agree that some individual rights must be sacrificed for the good of mankind, and that before there was society man lived in a state of nature. Their different interpretations of these two points largely describes the differences between the two men, clearly from similar time frames, from a similar geographical space, but who collaborate inadvertently with each other to help establish core Western political philosophies.

Philosophers of the Enlightenment played a crucial role in how the governments and people of Europe would think and change. John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau were two political philosophers that were quite important to this movement. John Locke is credited as the “principal forerunner of the Enlightenment” (Mason 18) his writing would have large influence on other prominent figures in the Enlightenment. The words of Rousseau in The Social Contract elaborated on concepts touched upon by Locke, such as sovereignty and natural rights. “He that, in the state of nature, would take away the freedom that belongs to anyone in that state, must necessarily be supposed to have a design to take away everything else, that freedom being the foundation

Locke indicates that, by giving up some of one's rights, the state gains legislative power and is obliged to use this power to make laws that benefit the people, who hired it. Locke writes that, "This legislative is not only the supreme power of the common-wealth, but sacred and unalterable in the hands where the community have once placed it...over whom no body can have a power to make laws, but by their own consent, and by authority received from them." (XI 134) Rousseau argues that the state should not be able to acquire legislative power, but simply acts as an executive. He claims that the legislative power comes from the people, for the sovereign is simply the general will of everyone, in which the state should obey and enforce. Rousseau states that, "Each of us puts his person and all his power in common under the supreme control of the general will, and, as a body, we receive each member as an indivisible part of the whole" ( ), showing that the aggregate mind of the people, the general will, has the legislative power as "all" powers are given to it.

The eighteenth century was a time period of great enlightenment that produced ideas that have influenced the political space and ideas about how to govern societies. This era of was influenced by many philosophers including John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. John Locke was an English philosopher who is credited as one of the most influential thinkers of his time. Throughout his career as a philosopher, Locke wrote the famous political work, Two Treatises of Government that described his theories on civil society. He was born in a time of political unrest in which he was growing up in the middle of the English Civil war. His work is a response to Thomas Hobbes’s Leviathan in which he describes a representative democracy is superior way of governing. Jean-Jacques Rousseau was a Swiss born philosopher that produced the works of Discourse on Inequality and The Social Contract. Although, Rousseau was a Swiss philosopher, he was most influential to the French and their