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John Locke's Conception Of Government

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In 1776, the Founding Fathers brought upon the world a government and society, first among its kind. Among all else, said government was established to ensure, for the first time in human history, the protection from the tyranny of man against his brother in all forms. As such, this initiative culminated in the framework known as the Constitution of the United States of America which stipulated the structures of such a society and government. It’s defining qualities included the guarantee of the rights of man as predetermined by his nature, the separation of government from civil society, and the acknowledgment of the need to ensure government would be unable to subvert these prerequisite virtues through appropriate institutions such as the separation of powers. In other words, the founders established a polity governed by a limited government. In stark contrast to the thought that gave rise to the modern rational state, which instead defers reasonable deliberation to expert authority, limited government to the administrative state, and natural rights to the triumph of will. …show more content…

These were subsequently influenced by the writings on John Locke in his work, the Two Treatise of Government. Locke believed before the conception of government man existed within a state of nature. Within this state, man has no master and is governed merely by the law of nature, of which is reason. Therefore, since man has no master within the state of nature, he stands as an equal among his fellow man and is free. This equality was defined by the fact that all men were endowed with the faculty of reason, and the proceeding natural rights that

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This ideology is counter to that of liberalism as it infringes on the natural rights of its citizens, and it is undemocratic as this society would not have the consent of the governed as a whole. Furthermore, counters the rule of law because the author believes the authority should never be challenged, and therefore the author suggests that the authority is exempt of these laws. A thinker such as Hobbes would agree with the author of this source as he believed that without a strong government it would lead to nation wide chaos, such as that that the author describes through the use of the phrase, “A society that allows authority to be challenged will never succeed.”. Additionally, Locke would disagree with all parts of this source, as he believed that individuals know for themselves what is best and therefore should have the freedom to make their own decisions. For the second sentence of this source Locke and Rousseau would both disagree as they believed that consent of the governed was vital to society, which directly contradicts the authors issues with the challenging

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