The Influence Of John Locke On Political Liberty

612 Words3 Pages

A few aspects in political liberty will be discussed, including the necessity of government, law, power and authority, democracy and right for revolution. Ideally and similarly, Locke and Marx believed that there was needless of government. However, they justified the necessity of the government in different perspective. Locke advocated the limited constitution of government as the basis of political liberty, arguing that government is needed to protect people’s properties, basic rights and freedom but with limited existence (Steven, 2002). Marx had the same approach as government is needed to protect people’s properties but in term of common property with large existence. Marx argued in such a way that government or the state has the capability to decide how the resources should be distributed, preventing the capitalists from creating surplus (Frank, 2005). The capability of government for Locke is in law perspective, not economic perspective- acts as an umpire to arbitrate human’s self-preservation desire and harmonize the interest of different public (Garth, 2011). …show more content…

He stressed on individual consent, which only a freeman can rule another freeman through tacit consent (Alex, 2010) and no man can be subjected to the authority of another without his own consent (Sanjeev, 2011). Marx, however, did not approach state in this way, claiming the government is the ruling class emerged from the economic system to defend and maintain class domination and exploitation, as he wrote in the Communist Manifesto (1848). It is necessary for him to abolish private property and create a classless society, only then the government will serve for the public