John Locke On Legitimate Government

A legitimate government can have several different interpretations and slight moderations, but the rudiments of a legitimate government can mostly be agreed on by many.

According to my definition, a legitimate government exists when it is supported constantly by its people. The entirety of people should have a right to put their leader(s) in power, and once voting on a leader, they should continue to have a say in policy to ensure their voices are not neglected.

Equality of all inhabitants of a regime should never be compromised, and it should be a priority to provide every citizen with the highest amount of liberty possible. The government should work to protect the rights of their citizens and fairly regulate the laws in place. After studying

Further, Locke creates a contract where the people are able to revolt if they completely disagree with their government. His contract also states that

“tacit” consent, or consent because one simply lives on the regime’s ground, is a valid form of consent to back a government. But this format still does not allow for the people to be heard, because they are not recommended to act on their ideals until it is too late. To explain further, they are not consistently given the opportunity to voice their values and opinions in the contract created by Locke. All this being said, it is fair to award Rousseau’s social contract with the best setup of consent of its people when looking at a legitimate government.

In addition, it is important for a social contract to eliminate inequality to its best ability because a legitimate government is to treat its citizens fairly. This is because in a regime where different peoples are unequal in the eyes of their government, rights are allocated unequally to discriminated groups. For example, groups that are seen as lesser or minorities are not given

Therefore, inequality is created when someone is thought to be of less worth for their specific passions and occupations. All in all, Rousseau leaves the least room for inequality in his social contract, therefore dealing the highest amount of legitimacy to a government possible.

Another important feature of a legitimate government is the promotion of the liberty of its citizens. Liberty is representing and maintaining freedom for individuals. This is a more philosophical approach to maintaining a legitimate government, but it is not of any less importance to other factors. This is because, in a majority of populations, the general will on individual freedom is that it should be as high as possible. That being said, a legitimate government should aim at increasing freedom instead of decreasing it. Rousseau’s contract does just this because it advocates for the obedience to a law because the people have agreed on and have participated in creating that law. This could, for example, mean that by implementing a law in which people cannot steal from someone else, people will be more liberated because they are free from losing property. In a Hobbesian contract however, the people are to lose liberty.