Second Treatise of Government

Locke details what he believes to be the origin of political societies, and how the average person can draw upon this knowledge of history and the past to better understand how their own rulers should behave.

In doing so, Locke makes three important points. The first to emerge is the idea that rulers, though chosen from noble lineages, still need “the consent of every individual” (53) to make their rule legitimate. Whether the Spartans, or the Ancient Israelites, or the American Indians, Locke depicts each society as having some kind of supreme authority figure in the form of a king or a general or a chief—but those great men could only rule over a people who agreed to be ruled in the first place. He emphasizes again that, just as a father is superior to his child in some ways yet cannot allow his position of power to distract him from promoting that child’s welfare, a ruler cannot allow a sense of superiority to distract him from promoting the people’s best interest above all else.

The second point, which relates to the paternal relationship a ruler or government often develops with its people over time, ties along with this. Locke writes, “It was no wonder that they should pitch upon, and naturally run into that form of government, which from their infancy they had been all accustomed to; and which, by experience, they had found both easy and safe” (57).