John Locke's Political Theory

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John Locke’s political theory offers an extraordinary paradigm, critiquing the normal paradigm of his time, space and socio-economic milieu (McDONALD 1973 : 602 - 604). He is a radical proponent of individual freedom, toleration, conscience and a civil government. Lockean ideas in the contemporary world are broadly classified into two extreme interpretations of liberal constitutionalism and Marxism. Locke is economically mercantile, politically conservative and highly Christian in his political and moral theoretical framework. This essay will focus on portraying the grounds on which Locke is considered a modern liberal constitutionalist, taking into account his major works, A Letter Concerning Toleration(1689) and The Second Treatise of Civil Government(1689). Locke examines life without a civil government and then he effectively explicates how a civil government can be created and maintained in a commonwealth in The Second Treatise of Civil Government(1689). He considers the period before the existence of civil government as a “state of nature”, where nobody is considered inferior or superior and where this sense of equality fosters great maxims of justice, charity, mutual love and the duties that people owe one another. It is a state where there is no common political power as such. The civil government is created due to the disturbances in the state of nature which has surfaced because of the tremendous rise in population, decrease in available resources and