John Locke’s Political Philosophy: Key Terms and Concepts
Core Concepts
Common Good
The models either as individuals who are members of a state, and it is this which should provide for each of its members for their welfare and happiness.
Corporatism
Corporatism as a form of action relates to the organization of a community based on partnerships representing the interests of all its component members.
Consent
Free and voluntary assent of an individual to become part of a political community. It is synonymous with the author’s agreement or contract. Consent can be of two kinds: express (given in a clear and explicit manner) and tacit (implicitly granted by any individual for the mere fact of living and enjoying the benefits of a community already created).
Social Contract
The contract to which men give their consent to pass from the state of nature to civil society.
State
A state is a political entity comprising the whole people united under one government with a common law and established in a given territory. For Locke, it is an organization that results from the pact between the people of a community, better guaranteeing the life and liberty of its members.
State of Nature
The situation in which men find themselves before forming a civil society through the social contract. Men in this state are governed by moral law naturally, which gives them certain rights, the correlative duties, as well as the powers to set and enforce the law.
Legitimate Government
It is the representation of the community once it has been constituted, elected by the majority, and that should govern the community according to the public good.
Law
Rules governing the action of man. Locke distinguishes between natural law and positive law. The first is itself the state of nature and is the law of reason. The second is based on natural law and the proper law of civil society, established by the legislature.
Positive Laws
Laws are enacted in a state or society by legislative power. These will be fair when based on the law of nature, by which they must be regulated and interpreted.
Freedom
In the state of nature, man’s freedom consists in not being subject to any power outside himself in Locke’s philosophy. However, man is subject to natural law. Civil society emerges for the best defense of freedom.
Natural Liberty
It is the freedom that man has in the so-called state of nature, which Locke defines as “… a state of perfect freedom to order their actions and dispose of their possessions and persons as to them shall seem most convenient, within the limits of natural law, without asking permission or depending on the will of another man.” This freedom is at odds with another man when the other tries to tame or to distribute assets that are not sufficient and are subject to conflict.
Liberalism
An economic organization system based on private property and free enterprise and market. It also relates to the system of political organization in the state based on the division of powers and the guarantees of individual liberties.
Legislature
A Locke expression that refers to the institution which represents the legislative branch.
Majority
A way to make decisions in a civil society. Otherwise specified, it means a simple majority, being necessary if and when we require a qualified majority.
Absolute Monarchy
A form of government in which power is exercised by a single person in a concentrated way, with a tendency to despotism and tyranny.
Power
The ability to set and execute the law in the natural state. Men delegate these natural powers to the appropriate bodies of political society. Locke distinguishes 3 branches: legislative (the power to dictate the law, which is in the hands of parliament), executive (the power to run the law, exercised by the government), and federative (the power of a community in relations with the exterior, held by the representatives of the community).
Legislature
The most important power of the state, since it is the one responsible for making the laws by which all must abide.
Federative Power
With this expression, Locke refers to the state’s power to declare war, conclude peace, and establish partnerships deemed beneficial for the good of their own community with other communities outside the state.
Executive Branch
In the political arena of a state, it is the power in charge of governing the state, implementing, and enforcing the laws.
Property
The author sees property in a broad sense as a natural right which extends over one’s life, liberty, and property. The basis of private ownership is labor.
Rebellion
The right conferred on individuals who are arbitrarily subjected to a tyrant. Of course, it matches the right of the people to defend themselves against the illegitimate authority of absolute monarchy.
Civil Society
It is therefore to defend property in the Lockean sense (property of life, property, individual liberty, and ownership of land and property) voluntarily entering a part of civil society. The pact, which involves civil society, has the sense, above all, to preserve freedom, that is, personal property that enables the other two. Civil society is thus not a pact against human nature, wild and violent, but a pact to achieve security of not losing freedom in the hands of another, slavery (also under the absolute power of a despot), I put in a “state of war.”
Tolerance
It is the essential form of respect for different opinions, thoughts, beliefs, and differences between each other, playing a key role in liberal systems.