Is Government in our Nature? (Locke, Vol. 35, pp. 25 - 81)

An Essay Concerning the True Original Extent and End of Civil Government

The concept of "Government" is not popular right now.  Government is "bureaucratic."  Government is "too big."  Government is "inefficient."  So what is the source of government and end of government?  How does this play into today's attitudes about government.

Locke's brilliant essay asks about the source of government, the legitimacy of government once established, the importance of the rule of law, and the role of property.  

The Source of Government

As Professor Adler points out, Locke's first treatise was in response to the claim that the monarch ruled by divine right.  Locke rejects this assertion.  He then asks, if kings do not rule by divine right, and if government is more than "rule by the strongest," then what is the source of government?  Locke answers his own question:

      "Who shall be judge whether the prince or legislative act contrary to their trust?  ... To this I reply, the people shall be judge."  (p. 81)

As this concept had rarely been put into practice up to this point, Locke asserts the controversial idea that the source of government is in the people.

How is Government Legitimized?

In Locke's search for the legitimacy of government, he first defines the nature of political power.  

     "Political power, then, I take to be 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 the defence of the commonwealth from foreign injury, and all this only for the public good."  (p. 25)

Locke argues that this power arises from a compact made by persons who previously lived in an unorganized state of nature.  While some, like Hobbes, found this state of nature to be "one of war and brutishness, Locke thinks of it as a state of liberty."  And in this state of liberty, and to protect the rights and property of those living in this state of liberty, society organized government through a social contract.

     "Men, being, as has been said, by nature all free, equal, and independent, no one can be put out of this estate and subjected to the political power of another without his own consent, which is done 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."  (p. 46)

The Rule of Law and the Practical Aspects of Governance: Creation, Execution and Judgment.

Locke sets forth three reasons that society would subject itself to government: (1) to establish the rule of law, (2) to establish judges to interpret the law and decide controversies, and (3) to establish a method to execute the law.  And to what end are these three purposes put?  It is important to note that these three reasons line up nicely with the purposes behind the three branches of government.  And according to Locke, one of the principal ends of government is the preservation of property.

The Preservation of Property

Property is an important part of Locke's political theory.  Locke defines property and how it comes to be that somebody owns something to the exclusion of others.  Locke concludes that property is created through labor.

      "Though the things of Nature are given in common, man (by being master of himself, and proprietor of his own person, and the actions or labour of it) had still in himself the great foundation of property ....  Thus labour, in the beginning, gave a right of property, wherever any one was pleased to employ it, upon what was common ...."  (p. 34)  

So for Locke, one of the principal purposes of government is to protect property (in the broadest sense, including life, liberty, and estate).  So not only may government not take property, it must protect a person's right to it.  

Locke and The Ideal Form of Government

The form of government envisioned by Locke differs slightly from our constitutional government of today.  He envisioned a constitutional monarchy.  In this form, the legislative power of Parliament was supreme, but the Monarch retained certain executive preogatives.  Our current government established by "the people" is a better developed form of government in protecting our rights and property.  While government gets a bad rap, I would be willing to bet if there were the popular will to call another constitutional convention today, the final product would be remarkably similar to what we currently have in place.

The current debates about the role of government and the balance of power between the state and federal governments are the same debates that occurred at the founding of our Republic.  I am hoping to become more conversant in those debates and the philosophical strains that run through those arguments.  But Locke and others before him established the basic foundation and structure of the government we have (and enjoy?) today.  And while the opportunity is there to change it, when it gets right down to it, I doubt that we would make that choice.