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Summary Of John Locke's Second Treatise

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Some of the points covered by John Locke in The Second Treatise -
State of Nature - Human beings are born with some natural rights and they have no right to violate the right of others. As long as individual lives by the laws of nature and peace prevail they are pleased to do as they like.
Conquest and Slavery – God created all human beings equally, to live freely without being held captured is the birthright of all. All of us are entitled to self-ownership since slavery violates self-ownership.
Property - Humans have the right to own private property.
Representative Government - The sole purpose of government is to look after the well-being of all. The government can only be in power with the consent of the …show more content…

As long as individual lives by the laws of nature and peace prevail they are pleased to do as they like. Under these laws, people have right to protect themselves and their property. In order to be a part of the civil societies, people are willing to exchange some of their natural rights to be protected under the law of land. Their right to liberty and right to property should be protected. The government has power over people with the sole purpose of protecting and working towards to well-being of all. Locke's idea is that of a civil state, based on the foundation of natural rights which are common to all where the government protects and works for the welfare of all. In case the government does not benefit people then it can be …show more content…

Locke’s idea of the three division of government powers between legislative, executive, and federative which were later reformed got adapted in the American Constitution and still exists.
After the collapse of monarchies and empires and people wanted the government’s sole purpose to be the welfare and well-being of all, failing to do so had the consequence of being overthrown which was also the right of people. In recent times on such example is the country of Romania wherein due to failed government, there are massive protests. To a lot of extent, his vision of government has been fully realized, but as the societies keeps changing there is still more to attain Yes, this reading is still relevant to contemporary times. especially when the whole world is changing so dramatically. This helped me understand how the societies we live in came to be, all his ideas are still relevant to this date and forms the crux of world democracies and still exists in our Constitution of USA. This is still relevant with regards to how we think civil societies and governments should function. Somewhere these ideas inspired the new world order. If these ideas are practiced by all this world would become a much better place to live. Especially

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