John Locke

1. John Locke Political Society Or, emerging from the state of nature

2. Locke in Context1.2. Civil War and Glorious Revolution • English civil war: • Religious controversies: Catholics v.s Protestants, Anglican Church vs Protestants and Catholics • Parliament v.s King—long running battle. Parliament controls revenue • Charles I executed in 1649. Oliver Cromwell, leader of the New Model Army, installs himself as Lord Protector of the Commonwealth. • Cromwell continues to dissolve parliaments when they oppose him,. Not too different from previous Kings. • Cromwell dies, Charles II (exiled in France) invited to assume the throne. 1660 Stuart Restoration.

3. Charles II dies 1685. His brother, James II, a Catholic, comes to the throne. • “James II could not have picked a worse time to come to the throne. To many Protestants, there was no such things as a moderate Catholic monarch- all were inclined towards tyranny and despotism.” • http://www.open2.net/civilwar/6.3.aftershocks.html

4. Concerned that James would sire an heir, and England would remain under Catholic dynasty, Protestant leaders turn to Mary and William of Orange (protestant) to invade England and assume the throne. • William lands in England with a force of 15,000 • Support for King James crumbles. The Revolution is over.

5. What would now be the relation between Parliament and King? • A new regime (arrangement of offices) was required. • Locke’s political writings, set forth in 1689, became an influential source and justification of the new constitution.

6. The legislation which was passed between 1689- 1701 and which clarified the respective rights of Crown and Parliament still forms the bedrock of British politics to the present day. • http://www.open2.net/civilwar/6.3.aftershocks.html

7. Locke’s writings also influenced the American revolutionaries, • The Declaration of Independence (1766).

9. Locke’s Preface makes the connection between the Two Treatises and the events of 1688 clear. • These treatises “I hope are sufficient to establish the Throne of our Great Restorer, Our present King William; to make good his title, in the Consent of the People, which being the only one of all lawful governments, he has more fully and clearly than any Prince in Christendom.”

10. 2. “Divine Right of Kings”: The First Treatise • Sir Robert Filmer's most important work was Patriarcha. Written around 1628 and left in manuscript; it was finally published in 1680 as Tory [Royalist] propaganda. • Locke’s First Treatise is an extended attack on Filmer’s argument.

11. Divine Right of Kings • Robert Filmer: “the kingly power is by the law of god, so it hath no inferior law to limit it” (Patriarcha, 281).

12. Filmer’s “great position” is that “Men are not naturally free” • (Locke, First Treatise, Chp.II, sec. 6) • Locke’s argument: “men are naturally free and independent.”

13. Sec 57. freedom is not license • Freedom means to follow the dictates of law. • “Law , in its true notion, is not so much the limitation as the direction of a free and intelligent agent to his proper interest.” • Liberty is also “to be free of another’s arbitrary rule” sec 57.

14. Problem: if we are all free, who gets to rule (and why?) • Why should some rule and others be ruled? • What’s the principle that makes rule legitimate?

15. “unless the lord and master of them all should, by a manifest declaration of his will, set one above another, and confer on him, by an evident and clear appointment, an undoubted right to dominion and sovereignty” (sec. 4). • “’Tis in vain then to talk of subjection and obedience, without telling us whom we are to obey” (First Treatise, sec 81). • If one declares “the wise should rule,” who are the wise among us? How will we (unwise) recognize them?

16. Locke’s Answer? • Consent is the basis of legitimate political authority

17. We are naturally free. Why? • All the workmanship of God? • Because we are rational (we are born free, as we are born rational). • But only Adam was born rational. The rest of us acquire reason • Is there a chance that some will not acquire reason? • Yes, “ideots and madmen” must be placed under “the tuition and government of others” (60).

18. How is the state of nature characterized? • Each individual executes the law of nature. We all have equal authority regarding the law. • We are free to pursue our own goals within the bounds of the law of nature • SofN is a state of Peace, mutual help, benevolence; But only if law of nature is effective • Problem • law of nature (reason) is not effective • Question: §. 123.IF man in the state of nature be so free, as has been said; if he be absolute lord of his own person and possessions, equal to the greatest, and subject to no body, why will he part with his freedom? why will he give up this empire, and subject himself to the dominion and controul of any other power?

19. Response: there are three things “wanting” (missing) in the state of nature. Sec. 123 1. No known settled law “allowed by common consent to be the standard of right and wrong” • Why doesn’t the law of nature satisfy this requirement?. [See next] 2. No known and indifferent judge with authority to determine differences according to established law • for every one in that state being both judge and executioner of the law of nature, men being partial to themselves, passion and revenge is very apt to carry them too far, and with too much heat, in their own cases; as well as negligence, and unconcernedness, to make them too remiss in other men’s.

20. 3.Poor execution of the Law of nature • “For the law of nature would, as all other laws that concern men in this world, be in vain if there were nobody, in the state of nature, had a power to execute that law” (sec 7). • “In the state of nature there often wants power to back and support the sentence when right, and to give it due execution. They who by any injustice offended, will seldom fail, where they are able, by force to make good their injustice; such resistance many times makes the punishment dangerous, and frequently destructive, to those who attempt it.” Sec 126

21. §. 127.Thus mankind, notwithstanding all the privileges of the state of nature, being but in an ill condition, while they remain in it, are quickly driven into society.

22. Consent required to enter society • Men consent to give up two powers • A. to do what he wants to preserve himself and others within the law of nature [call this NaturalLiberty?] • Now he will be regulated by the laws of the community • B. the power to punish crimes committed against the law of nature [call this Executive Power?] • Now the community will exercise this power through their government • and engages his natural force, (which he might before employ in the execution of the law of nature, by his own single authority, as he thought fit) to assist the executive power of the society,

23. §. 131.But though men, when they enter into society, give up the equality, liberty, and executive power they had in the state of nature, into the hands of the society, to be so far disposed of by the legislative, as the good of the society shall require; yet it being only with an intention in every one the better to preserve himself, his liberty and property;

24. Property • Labour theory of property: • When did the apple become yours? When you picked it up. You mixed your labour with nature. No one can legitimately take it, if there’s enough and as good left for others. • You don’t need consent of everyone else to claim private property (otherwise you would have starved to death waiting for everyone to agree that you can eat the apple) • Labour “adds something more” to nature • I have “fixed my property” {in the apple} sec28. • I have a property in myself. As a free agent, I am my own person. I mix a part of myself with nature through labour. It becomes a part of my free self. Property is an extension of my own freedom. It is also the “fence” to my freedom. Protect property and you protect freedom. • If someone takes the apple, and there were plenty of apples left on the tree, they are not really stealing the apple, they are stealing my labour. [the thief] desired the benefit of another's pains, which he has no right to” • Slavery: a condition in which you claim all of my labour for yourself.

25. God gave the world to man in common, but he gave it to them for their benefit…it can’t be supposed he meant it should always remain uncultivated. • He gave it to the use of the industrious and rational…;not to the fancy or covetousness of the quarrelsome and contentious. • Labour does not lessen, but increases the common stock of man • 1 acre of cultivated land is worth 10 times, maybe 100 times the fallow land. (by sec 43 nature provides only 1/1,000th of the value).

26. Natural limit to property acquisition: • You can’t hoard things that will spoil. • Solution? • Money. When men agree that “A little piece of yellow metal” has value. • Metal won’t spoil. There is no limit to acquisition of shiny metal. • Why acquire something that is virtually useless? • Because others value it too. Men consent to this system of exchange because they seek profit. • “Different degrees of industry give men possessions in different proportions, so this invention of money gave them the opportunity to continue and enlarge them” [48]. • Where there is not something, both lasting and scarce, and so valuable to be hoarded up, there men will not be apt to enlarge their possessions of land…they will not be industrious beyond what they need in order to survive. • So for the advancement of society, we need personal liberty, profit motive, and protection of property so people feel confident that they will keep what they have earned.

27. Money now permits the disproportionate and unequal distribution of property • This is by “tacit and voluntary consent…only by putting a value on gold and silver, and tacitly agreeing in the use of money” [50].

28. Locke is arguing for Limited Government • We cannot give to society more power than we had in the state of nature. • This limits the power of government • Since had no right to kill ourselves in nature, apparently the gov’t has no right to kill us if we are innocent • But a question arises: • Where does the power to make laws come from?

29. We did not have the power to make laws in the state of nature. A law already existed (The Law of Nature) • So what’s the source of legislative power? • Merely the recognition of the ineffectiveness of the law of nature? • Or, law is the rational determination of right and wrong in a given circumstance • Therefore the community’s laws should do the same • See sec 136 and notes to Hooker’s work: natural law still serves as a standard

30. Consenting to give up two rights • Execution • Liberty • We don’t give up the right to demand compensation • Review sec. 11 • Only this second right was directly tied to self-preservation • Executing the Law of Nature was not tied directly to the victim’s self-preservation.

31. “by the right he has of preserving all mankind;” . . . every man, in the state of nature, has a power to kill a murderer, • the other [right] of taking reparation,. . .belongs only to the injured party .

32. Every one, as he is bound to preserve himself,. . .when his own preservation comes not in competition, ought he, as much as he can, to preserve the rest of mankind (sec.6) • the law of nature. . .willeth the peace and preservation of all mankind (sec.7)

33. It is not the right of self-preservation that gives the right to kill others, or it does, but only insofar as we are members of the human species. The harm is done to the whole of mankind, not to you, the individual. • But men blur this distinction. When they punish, they do so out of personal motive, not to protect all men from like harm.

34. What impact does this have on Locke’s argument? • The executive power is to be guided by its natural end. • Its end in the state of nature is to protect all mankind (not any particular individual) • If a particular individual’s life (or property) is inconsistent with the good of the whole, the good of the whole must take precendence.

35. the first and fundamental natural law, which is to govern even the legislative itself, is the preservation of the society, and (as far as will consist with the public good) of every person in it. Sec.134 • it is fit that the laws themselves should in some cases give way to the executive power, or rather to this fundamental law of nature and government, viz. That, as much as may be, all the members of the society are to be preserved (sec.159) • and to punish the breach of the law of nature in others, so as (according to the best of his reason) may most conduce to the preservation of himself, and the rest of mankind. So that the end and measure of this power, when in every man’s hands in the state of nature, being the preservation of all of his society, that is, all mankind in general; it can have no other end or measure, when in the hands of the magistrate, but to preserve the members of that society in their lives, liberties, and possessions; 171

36. The Point of this? • by joining society you agree to serve in the police or army, even if this means near certain death • The power of punishing he wholly gives up, and engages his natural force, (which he might before employ in the execution of the law of nature, by his own single authority, as he thought fit) to assist the executive power of the society, as the law thereof shall require: 130 • the serjeant, that could command a soldier to march up to the mouth of a cannon, or stand in a breach, where he is almost sure to perish, can [not] command that soldier to give him one penny of his money; . . . because such a blind obedience is necessary to that end, for which the commander has his power, viz. the preservation of the rest; but the disposing of his goods has nothing to do with it. 139 • Although arbitrary power is inconsistent with the ends of government (137) • absolute power in those areas of legitimate gov’t authority is NOT;“even absolute power where it is necessary, is not arbitrary …”139

37. 2. Although you joined society to protect YOUR property, it can, with right, be taken from you or destroyed by the state under certain circumstances. • many accidents may happen, wherein a strict and rigid observation of the laws may do harm; (as not to pull down an innocent man’s house to stop the fire, when the next to it is burning). (sec 159)

38. In this case, Locke calls such a decision “Prerogative” • This power to act according to discretion, for the public good, without the prescription of the law, and sometimes even against it, (160) • (at §.210 he calls this an “arbitrary power . . .to do good”)

39. There is no absolute guarantee that society will protect either you or your property. • Under certain circumstances, it is justified in threatening your life and destroying your property • What happened to the whole purpose of joining society? • Government power, and especially prerogative, must not be arbitrary (see sec.150)

40. important difference between civil society and state of nature--power is not arbitrary in civil society (sec 135) • T. Hobbes’ solution (Leviathan) looks like civil society, but it is no better than the state of nature. In fact, it is worse. Why? (See sec 137)

41. Structure of Government • Compare Locke with Aristotle on regime types: • The majority,. . .may employ all that power in making laws for the community from time to time, and executing those laws by officers of their own appointing; and then the form of the government is a perfect democracy: or else may put the power of making laws into the hands of a few select men, and their heirs or successors; and then it is an oligarchy: or else into the hands of one man, and then it is a monarchy: (sec 132) • A fourth kind (representative government?) • “if the legislative power be at first given by the majority to one or more persons only for their lives, or any limited time,”

42. Legislative power is the supreme power in government. • Why? Legitimate political power must rest on consent of the governed. • It is sufficient, however, that representatives makes laws for us. • This seems to be Locke’s preferred regime type, but he does not explicitly defend this choice. • Our consent (election) gives rep.s their authority to make laws • Once the form of government has been chosen, “the people” are no longer directly involved in governing (see sec. 157)

43. Limits on Power (sec 142) • First, They are to govern by promulgated established laws, not to be varied in particular cases, but to have one rule for rich and poor, for the favourite at court, and the countryman at plough. • Secondly, These laws also ought to be designed for no other end ultimately, but the good of the people. • Thirdly, They must not raise taxes on the property of the people, without the consent of the people, given by themselves or their deputies. And this properly concerns only such governments where the legislative is always in being, or at least where the people have not reserved any part of the legislative to deputies, to be from time to time chosen by themselves. • Fourthly, The legislative neither must nor can transfer the power of making laws to any body else, or place it any where, but where the people have.

44. Limits on Power Legislature • Can’t be arbitrary over lives and fortunes • Thus the law of nature stands as an eternal rule to all men, legislators as well as others. The rules that they make for other men’s actions, must, as well as their own and other men’s actions, be conformable to the laws of nature, i. e. to the will of God, of which that is a declaration; and the “fundamental law of nature being the preservation of mankind,” no human sanction can be good or valid against it. 135 • Can’t rule by arbitrary decree • For the law of nature being unwritten*, and so no-where to be found, but in the minds of men; they who through passion, or interest, shall miscite, or misapply it, cannot so easily be convinced of their mistake, where there is no established judge: • Legisl. Must “decide the rights of the subject, by promulgated, standing laws, and known authorised judges.” sec 136

45. 3. cannot take from any man part of his property without his own consent (includes, no taxation without consent) Men therefore in society having property, they have such right to the goods, which by the law of the community are their’s, that no body hath a right to take their substance or any part of it from them, without their own consent; without this they have no property at all; for I have truly no property in that, which another can by right take from me, when he pleases, against my consent. (sec 138) 4. Cannot transfer power of making laws to other hands

46. Locke’s argument is for limited government • But it must have real power necessary to govern • Review definition of political power, sec. 3

47. Federative power: • Concerns relations with foreign powers • Enemy actions cannot be predicted. • This power requires wide discretion, can’t be anticipated by laws sec (147) • Requires “prudence.” See Aristotle, III.4.17-18. • Better to be ruled by men or by laws? Answer? Both.

48. Tyranny and Revolution • Tyranny: exercise of power beyond right • E.g. when the governor rules in his own rather than the common advantage, or “when he makes not the law, but his will, the rule” (sec. 199). • “But if all the world shall observe pretences of one kind …if a long train of actions show the councils all tending that way [toward tyranny]; how can a man any more hinder himself from being persuaded in his own mind, which way things are going [?] sec. 210

49. If Locke’s theory of government is correct, we now have an objective standard by which to determine whether a government is just or unjust. • Justice, at this level, does not depend upon “the time” or the culture. • If the legislature does not rest on the consent of the people, the laws have no legitimate authority. • If the government is not protecting property, it has violated the purpose of government

50. “we now have a common measure by which to assess the legitimacy and actions of government and fellow citizens which does not require metaphysical knowledge or religious conversion or sectarianism. It creates a universal consensus concerning the minimum requirements for justice.” • Harry V. Jaffa