John Locke Two Treatises of Government

Abstract

This is the revised version of Peter Laslett's acclaimed edition of Two Treatises of Government, which is widely recognised as one of the classic pieces of recent scholarship in the history of ideas, read and used by students of political theory throughout the world. This 1988 edition revises Dr Laslett's second edition (1970) and includes an updated bibliography, a guide to further reading and a fully reset and revised introduction which surveys advances in Locke scholarship since publication of the second edition. In the introduction, Dr Laslett shows that the Two Treatises were not a rationalisation of the events of 1688 but rather a call for a revolution yet to come.

Basic Ideas of State Power Limitation in Political and Legal Doctrine

“…Chronologically, the idea of a counterweight appears as the first one, according to which state power activity is limited by another power: the divine (T. Aquinas (Lindberg, 1980)), the constitutive (J. Locke (Locke & Laslett, 1988)), J.-J. Rousseau (Wraight, 2008)), the people (J.-J.…”

“…The second idea in the course of power restriction idea evolution is the idea of state activity (power) self-restraint (J. Locke (Locke & Laslett, 1988), Sh.L. Montesquieu (Friedrich & Brzezinski, 1996) et al), really embodied in the theory of power separation.…”

“…In the modern understanding, the principle of powers separation between different power branches was first developed in England during the 13-th century. Since then it has passed from the system of power separation with the priority of the one power branch (G. Locke (Locke & Laslett, 1988)) to the mechanism of power separation on the basis of checks and balances system ensuring their equal interaction and balancing on the basis of law (Sh.L. Montesquieu (Montesquieu & Richter, 1970)).…”

Towards a definition of efforts.

“…justice have it that wealth should reward efforts (Milne, 1986;Miller, 1989Miller, , 1996Roemer, 2009;Sadurski, 1985aSadurski, ,1985bsee Lamont, 1995 (Locke, 1988;see Marx & Engels, 1867;Ricardo, 1891;A. Smith, 1887;Vaughn, 1978;see Carson, 2004 for a recent reassessment) have it that the economic value of a good results from the amount of effort needed to produce it, or, alternatively, from the effort spared to the owner of that good.…”

The Promise of Liberty to All: The Long March to Marriage Equality

“…He argued that the Constitution conceives of liberty in a negative sense, referring to freedom from governmental action. 71 This idea of liberty has a lot in common with that espoused by John Locke,72 or Isaiah Berlin's notion of 'negative liberty'. 73 Justice Thomas argued that the liberty protections in the Constitution mean nothing more than freedom from physical restraint, and as such laws preventing same-sex marriage do not infringe on this right.…”