Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Which view was NOT included in John Locke’s Two Treatises of Government (1690)? A. Governments should have limited power. B. Government must be accepted by all citizens. C. Governments have obligations to those whom it governs. D. Governments should not allow all groups of people the same liberties.

I would argue that point B is not included in Locke's Two Treatises of Government. Locke's political philosophy was quite radical for its time in that he believed that citizens had the right to get rid of a government if it did not respect the people's natural rights and liberties. The most important of these was the ownership of property which, for Locke, was the very cornerstone of a free and stable society. In Locke's day kings would often antagonize their citizens by infringing on their property rights, and Locke's theory of government is an articulation of the frustration felt by many at what they regarded as encroaching tyranny.
That being the case, Locke would argue that governments must not necessarily be accepted by all citizens. It all depends on whether or not they defend citizens' natural rights and liberties. And if they don't then citizens have the right to get rid of them and establish a new government. This is precisely what happened in colonial America, and it's notable that the American colonists were strongly influenced by Locke's ideas in this regard.

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