Summary of John Locke's Second Treatise on Civil Government

Summary of John Locke's Second Treatise on Civil Government

John Locke 1632-1704

Locke rejected all speculative metaphysics and believed that knowledge of the world could only be gained through observation, experience, and reflection on experience. He was familiar with the work of Sydenham, Boyle, Huygens, and Newton. His political philosophy contained in his Second Treatise on Civil Government published in 1689 was based on natural law and became the intellectual foundation of the Declaration of Independence written by Thomas Jefferson. Locke’s work exposed with finality the intellectual bankruptcy of hereditary monarchy and established the empirical basis of the free state.

Ch. 1

The Second Treatise on Civil Government presented an argument which suggested that Kings do not owe or receive their power of descent from Adam and the command of God that Adam subdue and take dominion over the earth. Since this is not the source of political power it must have another origin. Moreover, political power is a natural right of every man whereas all other forms of power are not.

Ch. 2

All men posses the right to restrain others from invading their rights and to punish offenders. The violation of any man’s rights is the violation against the whole of the species of man. It may be punished by any man sufficient to induce repentance in the offender. Natural laws are universally known and their violation rightfully punished. In addition to the right of any individual to impose retribution upon any offender for a violation of his natural law rights, the victim also possesses a right of restitution to obtain which he may enlist the aid of others.

The right of retribution is resident in every man. The right to restitution is only in the victim. The public magistrate may by virtue of executive authority bestow clemency in the execution of retribution, but only the victim can bestow clemency in the execution of restitution. The measure of punishment and its severity is determined by the severity necessary to cause the offender to repent and dissuade others from the same violations of natural rights.

The executive power of the law of nature is resident in every man. If it is unjustly enforced, he who has judged improperly is answerable to the rest of mankind. The executive power of the law of nature is already present in all the princes and rulers of independent governments. These laws of nature are absolutely binding on every man as all must seek from others that which is lacking in themselves, until by consent they combine in a political body.

Ch. 3

War is a state of enmity which, after careful reflection, may be declared against any man who threatens destruction (or who harbors enmity toward) his being. This is so because those who threaten destruction do not embrace the reason of natural law, but only the law of force and violence. He who would design or attempt to subject any other man under absolute power has declared a defacto or de jure war against that person by seeking to deprive him of life, liberty, or property. Moreover, the design of depriving another of any one thing is the same as depriving him of everything else as well. For this reason it is lawful for a victim to kill a thief, because the thief has declared himself in a state of war against his victim and in so doing has exposed himself to the hazards of war.

The state of nature differs from the state of war. Men living together according to reason and natural law is in a state of nature. Whenever anyone introduces force or the declared design of force upon another there is a state of war. In the absence of a common judge to remedy injury and prevent further harm, the state of war continues until the aggressor either offers peace or is utterly destroyed. But, if a common judge endorse the violence of some against others then it is still war which is made upon the victim. It is the avoidance of continuous warfare which is the main reason that mankind organize themselves into society.

Ch. 4

Liberty is the freedom of men to live under government which does not prescribe and in which mankind is not subject to the arbitrary rule of others, but only under the same restraints as the laws of nature. Liberty is not license. Government has no positive function at all. It does not compel, it only restrains from the violations of natural law. The freedom from arbitrary power is the same as the natural law of man’s preservation. No man may forfeit his own life or enslave himself. He may, however, by committing crimes against the natural law rights of others be worthy of death or an imposed slavery. Slavery is therefore, the continuation of the state of war. The state of war between a conqueror and captive ends when they have entered into a compact of limited power on one side and obedience on the other side.

Ch. 5

Mankind having a common inheritance of property from God, has come to have individual property rights. The earth and all it contains and produces are the common inheritance of mankind. Nevertheless, there must be a means by which the bounty is appropriated before it can be of any use. All inferior creatures and the earth itself are common to all men, but everyman has an individual property right in himself. Any aspect of the common property to which he applies his labor makes it also his property.

The common property of all mankind becomes the individual property upon the least application of labor to it because in its common state it has no value except by its removal from the commons. It cannot be that the explicit consent of every person is necessary to appropriation of any part of what is common. Thus, individual property begins with an application of labor to what is common. The property that any single individual may amass from the common is necessarily limited by one’s ability to collect it and his use for it. Whatever is not or cannot be collected belongs to others.

Title to land in the first instance is acquired in the same manner as any other form of property. As much land as a man can improve is his property, and he cannot enclose it without the consent of all mankind. The appropriation of any parcel of land by improvement does not prejudice any other man. God gave the world to men in common that through industry and reason they should make use of it and none have a cause to complain. The command of God to subdue is the command to appropriate. The needs of man compel his labor. Every man should have as much land as he can put to use. There is more than sufficient land for many more inhabitants had not the invention of money and the agreement of men put a value on land and introduced larger possessions.

He who appropriates land increases the common stock of mankind. Prior to the appropriation of land he who gathered more than he could use or need so that much went to waste violated the common law of nature and was liable to punishment for invading his neighbor’s share. Private property does not presume any private inheritance in Adam, but arises from the application of labor. The largest part in the value of anything is labor. The Americans are poor and have a low standard of living because they suffer a labor shortage and are unable therefore to fully exploit the available resources.

The value of manufactured products vastly exceeds the value of the raw materials whence they come. The employment of large numbers of mankind is preferable to the greater extent of domain. It is the goal of the wise prince to encourage the industry of mankind against the oppression and narrowness of party. It is labor which places the greatest value on land. Man by virtue of the self ownership of his person and his labor has inherent within himself the basis of private property. Labor gave a right of property in the beginning, but since the introduction of money this may no longer happen. The just possessions of a man consist in all those things not uselessly perishing in his possession.

The primary purpose in the rise of the use of money was to provide mankind with some lasting thing that might be kept indefinitely without devaluing, degrading, spoiling, or being wasted uselessly. Money is a store of value. It is the invention of money which gives mankind the opportunity to continue and enlarge possessions, and introduces the necessity of markets to increase wealth from the value of the products of labor. He who finds or makes something that has the use and the value of money will rapidly become wealthy. It is only the introduction of money in the form of hard commodities like gold and silver which permits the acquisition of land beyond that which one may reasonably use. It was labor not money that first attached a title to property.

Ch. 6

In the choosing of words it is best to speak of parental rather than paternal power or authority. Those who frequently argue for monarchy have improperly used the term ‘paternal power.’ The nature of equality among men is the quality of independence, i.e. without being subject to the will or authority of any other man. Children are not born into a full state of equality, but only obtain full equality at the age of majority.

From the first descendants of Adam all mankind are born without knowledge or understanding except for that of self preservation. There is no knowledge of man anterior to his observation and experience. Therefore, Adam and Eve were by the law of nature to preserve, nourish and educate their offspring. The law given to Adam was natural law: the law of reason. The end of this law is not to abolish, restrain, or punish. The end of the law is to preserve and enlarge freedom not to endorse license. It is the acquisition of knowledge and experience which liberates children. It is the knowledge of the laws of nature which liberates the father also.

Those who do not come to a state of reason and the knowledge of natural law are never set free from the governance of others. Knowledge is liberty, ignorance seeks power. In this manner all mankind acquire both reason to know natural law and freedom of action, and are not bound by monarchy. The freedom of action of all mankind is grounded in his capacity of reason and acquisition of the knowledge of natural law.

The temporary parental authority cannot be used as a basis to argue for the authority of monarchy. A father’s jurisdiction over his children is temporary and not an absolute or perpetual jurisdiction. Honor, respect, gratitude, and assistance are to be distinguished from absolute obedience and submission. The subjection of the child to the father terminates with the minority of the child, but the child’s obligation perseveres throughout his life. The obligation of younger children is more on the order of obedience while the obligation to parent on grown children is more on the order of honor.

Parental power is quite different from the sovereign power of commanding. That any person might owe an honor to any other does not empower him to make laws to compel honor. Political power is not parental or paternal power. Parental jurisdiction over children includes the power to distribute estates. No man has the power oblige his posterity to the same government to which he was obliged.

The executive power of nature resides in every man, but not by virtue of his paternal function. Forms of government are designed by the agreement of men as a matter of convenience. It is not impossible that mankind might have lived for a long time without any executive power in government at all. The first selection of executive government by men might have naturally been he who they had experienced in the role of a father. But, paternal authority is no more the foundation of political authority than it is the foundation of priestly authority.

Ch. 7

The nature of man as he is created is to be joined in society, and this is first evident between man and wife. Nevertheless, the society of the family is not fully that of political society. The purpose of the conjunction in the family is the continuation of the species. It is observed that in some animals the role of the male is limited. In other animals the role in the care and feeding of the young is more extensive.

The natural law imposes on mankind lengthier conjunction than any other creatures, by necessity of the extended dependency of children. There is no positive natural law which ordains the contract of marriage to be perpetual. Marriage is contractual. There is no absolute authority in either the husband or the wife as they are bound by natural law, and the power of the civil magistrate. Nor does the power of the civil magistrate extend beyond the resolution of disputes which may arise between them.

The chief end of civil society is the preservation of property. There are distinct differences between the society of the family and political society. Political or civil society arises when men have consented to surrender their natural rights in the preservation of life, liberty, and property. Before this is done mankind remain in the perfect state of nature. In civil society men have surrendered their rights in the preservation of property, in the punishment of offenses (domestic law), and in the punishment of offenses by those who are outside the political society (the power of making war). This is the beginning of both legislative and executive power of civil society.

That men by consent unite in delegating their executive power of the law of nature is necessary and sufficient to political or civil society. The governance of absolute monarchy is inconsistent with civil society because the monarch remains outside the civil society in a state of nature. The monarch cannot be the impartial judge between himself and others. The only foundation for one to govern others is the common consent of all. The nature of man is not inherently good.

Those who question the absolute power of the monarch are said to be authors of rebellion, but it is fatuous to suppose that a man in a state of nature would protect himself from the predations of all others except one. To the extent that any single man in civil society is exempted from its laws, civil society has ceased and the state of nature returned, and further that the state of civil society and the state of nature are not one and the same.

Ch. 8

Civil government arises by the consent of those who have chosen to leave the perfect state of nature and join themselves in a democratic body politic. Democratic process is necessary to the function of the civil society and the act of the majority must be understood as the act of the whole and possessing the power of the whole. Every person consenting to civil society obligates himself to all other members of that society and to the determination of the majority. The civil society cannot exist unless the act of the majority be accepted as the act of the whole. It is only the consent of men to form themselves together into society that is the beginning of lawful government.

The difficulties of living in a state of nature are so great that mankind must very early have formed themselves into society. The beginning of Rome and Venice were by the uniting and agreement of free and independent men. In many areas there are no forms of governance. Those who moved out from established societies formed a government over themselves by consent. Government does not arise from paternal authority. All of the governments of the world begun in peace were begun by the consent of men.

Men formed government in the first instance by consent. Monarchy prevailed until the heir was found incapable for some reason and then they would necessarily choose another. Even though Monarchy might be shown to be common, the beginning of monarchical governance was in the consent of the governed and not in paternal authority.

The first desire of men win choosing government was to provide themselves with protection from foreign force and little attention was paid to the dangers which they faced from each other.

In primitive societies the dominion of their rulers is largely limited to their role in warfare, but their exercise of executive domestic power is limited. The main function of early monarchy was to provide leadership in war. The formation of monarchies protected early societies from quickly perishing. It was the abuses of the prerogative of early monarchies that led mankind to look more carefully at ways of circumscribing power, principally by introducing legislative authority.

People were free from the beginning and by consent chose to be governed. Government was not handed down by paternal authority. If in the beginning anyone was free to begin a new monarchy then the freedom must have belonged to all. History is replete with examples of men withdrawing from existing jurisdictions and setting up new governments in other places.

Whatever obligations and compacts anyone made have made for himself, he cannot rightfully bind any of his posterity anymore than he can dispose of the liberty of any other person. Most of mankind are unaware that they posses the natural right to withdraw consent or remove themselves from the jurisdiction into which they are born. Everyman at the age of his legal discretion is at liberty to decide under which government he will put himself.

Mankind give either express or tacit consent of governance. Tacit consent of governance consists in the acceptance of a man’s possessions, enjoyment, or any part of a government’s dominion. Everyman submitting himself by consent to a government, submits also his property to the jurisdiction of the government. He who has given express consent is bound in perpetuity to be a subject of the government He who has given only tacit consent may at anytime go and incorporate himself into any other commonwealth. Only the express compact of consent makes anyone a member of any commonwealth. Tacit consent is insufficient to make one a member of the commonwealth.

Ch. 9

Although man in a state of nature is free, he subjects himself to society because he sees in it the benefit of the mutual preservation of his person, liberty, and property. The societies formed by men provide what is lacking in the state of nature. They provide common and established law, an independent and impartial authority to render judgment , and the power to enforce judgment and impose punishment.

It is in the earliest society that there is the origin of both executive and legislative power. In the state of nature all men have the right to self preservation and the right to the preservation of all others. It is only the corruption and degeneracy of man that brings about the need for civil society. When a man leaves a state of nature and joins society he surrenders a portion of the liberties which he formerly had and serves the community even as this is done by others as well. The power of society can never be supposed to extend beyond the equal protection of every one’s property. Whoever governs is bound to do so be established and known laws. He must rule with impartiality within the community and protect it from invasion from abroad.

Ch. 10

Once men have united in a society they may form any of a variety of forms of government: perfect democracy, oligarchy, monarchy, hereditary monarchy elective monarchy, etc. It is the manner in which the legislative power is assigned that determines the form of the commonwealth. The term commonwealth is used of any independent community.

Ch. 11

Laws are only made so by public approbation. The end of political power is the preservation of the life, liberty, and property of the who consent to its governance. It never has the right to destroy, enslave, or impoverish its subjects. Laws ordained to protect the commonwealth from external enemies presume the universal depravity of man.

The legislature of society may not assume to itself the power of arbitrary rule. The legislative power may not contradict any positive law of scripture. The condition of a man governed by arbitrary power is far worse than his condition in the state of nature. The arbitrary abuse of power to the detriment of any man’s property is more to be feared in absolute legislatures than in variable legislatures which dissolve and become the subjects of the common laws. The power of the government over property may extend to its regulation, but not to its seizure. The power of the government to levy taxes requires the consent of the people. The power of the legislative body may not be transferred to any others.

All government must be by promulgated established laws designed for no other end than the protection of the lives, liberties, and properties of the people. The government must not raise taxes without the consent of the people, and the legislative authority may not be transferred to anyone else.

Ch. 12

The legislative power and executive power ought not to be vested in the same hands. Beyond the legislative and the executive power there is the natural power in governance which is the power of every man prior to entry into society. It renders the society in a state of nature with respect to all other foreign states or persons.

The natural power of society may be called the federal power. It is the power of war and peace. The federal power is almost always united with the executive power. In its exercise it should not be interfered with by the legislative power. The executive and federal power should be exercised by persons in a relationship of subordination rather than by distinct persons so as not the engender disorder.

Ch. 13

The supreme power is the legislative to which all other must be subordinate even as the legislative must be subordinate to the people. The people always retain the supreme power of dissolving the government. In the absence of the legislative the executive is the supreme executor of the law. It is only in this capacity that he has any power and when he acts outside of it he has not right to obedience. Whenever the executive power is placed in a person outside of the legislative he is subordinate to it, but whenever the executive is placed in who is also a legislator he need not subordinate himself to it.

It is not necessary that the legislative body be continuously convened, but it is always necessary that the executive execute the laws that have bee made. Legislatures are usually either convened by the executive or by the requirements of their original constitution. Whenever an executive makes use of his authority to disband the legislative authority he declares a state of war against the people. The people retain the right to remove any force deployed without authority against them by force.

The power of the executive to convene the legislative does not give the executive an authority over the legislative. Constant or frequent meetings of the legislature would impose increasing burdens on the people. A solution must be found to the problem of the distribution of representation in the legislative power when it no longer reflects the distribution of population of society. Proportional representation must be periodically adjusted to account for the inevitable shifts in population over time.

Ch. 14

A certain latitude of prerogative in the executive must be assumed. The legislative or the people have by express laws placed limitations on executive prerogative. Limitations on the prerogative of the executive are not encroachments upon his independent power. The widest latitude in executive prerogative has been granted to the wisest and best of rulers, and circumscribed in the case of weak, ill, or self interested rulers. Princes who are demonstrated to be good and wise have been admitted wide prerogative. This has been dangerous to the liberties of the people to the extent that those princes have been succeeded by rulers who used the inherited or traditional prerogative to the harm of the people. When either the executive in his prerogative of the legislative act to enslave or harm men, the majority act to amend the authority.

Ch. 15

Paternal or parental power is separate and distinct from political power. Political power is that which everyman has in a state of nature and has by mutual consent surrendered to society.

Despotic power is not within natural law because no distinction exist between men.

He who exercises despotic power has abandoned reason and places himself in a state of war with others. In doing so he renders himself liable to destruction or capture and enslavement by those whom he has injured and indeed by the rest of mankind.

Despotic power, absolute power, and slavery end as soon as compact or covenant enters. Nature bestows paternal power. Voluntary consent, compact, or covenant bestow political power Forfeiture to the end of self-aggrandizement bestows despotic power. The nature and extent of these three powers shows that paternal power is less than that of civil society and despotic power exceeds the limits of civil society.

Ch. 16

All governments have originated in the consent of the people. The capacity to conquer of its execution bears no entitlement to the submission of the conquered. Those who serve the ruler in a just war cannot suffer by conquest. The ruler who conquers in just war obtains absolute power over the lives of those who waged an unjust war. He has no power of those who did not wage unjust war, nor even over the possessions of those who were combatants.

The conqueror’s power only extends over the lives of those who have concurred in the waging of unjust war. The conqueror is not entitled to the right and title of the property of the conquered. It is the unjust use of force that puts a man into a state of war with another. The conqueror in a just war obtains no power over right of the innocent. The lives of the vanquished who have waged an unjust war are made forfeit.. But the vanquished had no power in himself to forfeit the lives of his dependents or his posterity. Therefore, the conqueror only has just claim upon the property of the vanquished to the extent of restitution and his right to the property of the vanquished is not absolute.

No damage that mankind in a state of nature may do to each other can give the conqueror the power to dispossess the posterity of the vanquished. The innocent survivors of the vanquished country are free in a state of nature to form a new government. All mankind retain the right to all that has been removed from them by force rather than by consent. The conqueror has no absolute power over the innocent of the conquered.

Everyman is born with two rights. These are the rights to the liberty of his person, and right to inherit with his siblings the property of his parents. He loses the absolute right in the second of these if he disavows the lawful government made with his ancestors consent. Moreover, those who are descended from ancestors who were vanquished retain forever the right to alter or abolish the government forced upon themselves and form new government. Nothing can be taken from any man without his consent, except by forfeiture in restitution. Property is a natural right of every man. No ruler is exempt from the laws of God and nature. Rebellion against a power imposed by force without right is not an offense to God.

Ch. 17

Conquest is a foreign usurpation. Usurpation is a domestic conquest. If the usurper extends the exercise of power beyond that of the prince who is usurped, it is tyranny also.

The usurper has no right to be obeyed until his power is confirmed by the consent of the people.

Ch. 18

Usurpation is the exercise of power to which another had the right. Tyranny is the exercise of power to which no one has a right. A lawful king makes laws the limits of his power. A tyrant makes everything yield to his will and appetite. All forms of government are liable to tyranny. Wherever law ends, tyranny begins. Force is to be used for nothing, but to oppose unjust and unlawful force. Beyond this there is only the condemnation of God and man.

In some states the person of the prince is by law sacred and not set aside quickly. The privilege of the sacred consideration does not extend beyond the king to his subordinate officers, nor can such a king empower his subordinates to act against the law.

Force is only justifiably used in response to the threat or use of unjust force.

When tyranny goes beyond one or a few of the people to the majority, or appears by the majority as tangible threat against all of the people, the tyrant has place himself in danger of being overthrown. Tyrants use both pretenses and actions to elude the law, but eventually the people observe that the tyrant is ruling against their interest.

Ch. 19

There is a difference between the dissolution of the society and the dissolution of the government. Wherever society is dissolved government cannot remain. The legislative is the first and fundamental act of society, and when anyone takes it upon himself to enact laws in the absence of authority the people may resist with force and constitute a new legislative. Whoever introduces new laws apart from the appointed legislative overthrows its authority and establishes a new legislative.

When the prince prevents the assembly of the legislative or its function, he removes the legislative and ends the government. Whenever election rules are changed by arbitrary power a legislative is chosen other than that appointed by the people. Delivery of the people into the subjection of a foreign power represents a change in the legislative and a dissolution of the government.

Wherever laws cannot be executed there is no government. Whenever the chief executive neglects and abandons the charge of enforcing the laws, the society is reduced to anarchy and the government is effectively dissolved. Whenever a government is dissolved the people return to a state of nature and may form a new legislative. Whenever the executive or legislative reaches beyond its role determined by natural law and for whatever reason destroys the lives, liberties or properties of the people the right of governance is forfeit and the government is dissolved. The right of governance then devolves to the people whence it came and they are free to establish new government.

Some may object that the general ignorance or ill humor of people would make government exposed to certain ruin. This is not the case because mankind are more disposed to suffer than abolish forms to which they are accustomed. Men do not lightly replace governments, but only after a long record of abuses.

Whenever a legislative acts in force against the natural law and the right of the people, it is the legislative that is in a state of rebellion. The principle that when usurpations of government become intolerable men may dissolve it and form new government is far from being an invitation to anarchy, but is a warning to anyone who would abuse lawful authority.

It is better that rulers on occasion should be held accountable and liable to be opposed than that mankind should live in perpetual fear of the unlimited appetite of tyrants.

The violation of public trust by one acting beyond his authority is a greater offence than an unlawful attack by a foreign enemy. even those who argue most forcefully for the power and sacredness of kings admit that in some cases it is lawful for a people to resist their king.

After a long succession of abuses and usurpations directed to the same end betrays design to reduce the people to absolute despotism it is the right of the people to alter or abolish the government and to establish new government for their future security.