Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Second Treatise of Government, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Nature, War, and Civil Society
Consent of the Governed and the Role of Government
Power and Absolute Monarchies
The Dissolution of Government
Summary
Analysis
As all people are born free and equal, Locke argues, no one can be placed under another’s political rule or relieved of their property without their expressed consent. The only way in which one is relieved of such natural liberty is by agreeing to unite in a common-wealth with others. When people assemble and consent to a government under one body politic, the majority has the right to rule the rest.
Locke’s idea of consent again applies to his argument against absolute monarchies. Subjects do not consent to the rule of the absolute monarch; that power is exerted on them against their will. If a subject did not willingly consent to unite with such a society, it cannot be considered civil society and the subject cannot be expected to obey.
Themes
Thus, everyone who consents to a body politic puts themselves under an obligation to submit to the rule of the majority. If one refuses to submit to the rule of the majority, the original compact is meaningless. If consent is not received by a majority act of the whole, individual consent must be obtained, which is surely impossible. This understanding might have made Leviathan quite a bit shorter, Locke says. For if the majority cannot conclude the rest, there cannot be a body politic.
Here, Locke references Thomas Hobbes directly by mentioning Hobbes’s book, Leviathan, a work of political theory that argues the power of absolute monarchies and the divine right of kings. Hobbes’s book is long—over 600 pages compared to Locke’s much shorter book at just over 100—and Locke suggests Leviathan could have been much shorter if Hobbes would have just accepted that absolute monarchies can’t stand because they don’t involve consent or consider the majority.
Themes
Of course, Locke says, there aren’t any examples in history where independent and equal people leave nature and set up a government, and people already under a government do not have the right to start a new one. However, Rome and Venice began by the uniting of many free and independent people. Many parts of America were also without official government, and in each of these places, politic society began with the agreement of free people.
There obviously are no surviving records from the very first civil societies, but since civil societies exist, Locke points out that such societies had to start sometime. Civil societies clearly began with the consent of the people and an agreement to live together under common rule for the common good.
Themes
Literary Devices
Locke acknowledges that in many historical instances, original common-wealths were ruled by one man, usually a king. These kings, however, were empowered by consent of the people with the following words: “And the people made him head and captain over them.” If a king was found to be weak, the people could name a more capable king. In Israel, the main duty of the first kings were to lead armies in war. After Saul, the kings were chosen by the people and anointed in oil. Thus, Locke says, it is possible to be born free and place rule into one man’s hands, but those who have historically done this never thought their monarch would be “Jure Divino.” Indeed, the peaceful beginning of government lies with the consent of the people.
Jure Divino is Latin for “by divine law,” by which Locke argues that even biblical people didn’t believe their king was ordered by God’s divine right. Saul was Israel’s first king, and he was anointed by God; however, kings after Saul were anointed by the people, which means the people freely picked their king and imbued him willingly with the power to rule. Locke is quick to point out that one can still be free under a monarchy, as long as that monarchy is not absolute. After all, Locke does support King William, who he claims rules by consent of the people.
Themes
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Governments must understand that they claim no power over the child, simply because they claim power over the parents, Locke argues. A child is born no subject of any government, until they reach the age of reason and consent to join a common-wealth feely. Thus, the most important aspect of a political society is that it is made with the consent of its members.
This again underscores Locke’s argument of consent and the fact that everyone is born free from any outside power or force. In order to be part of an absolute monarchy, a child would have to consent to join after the age of reason, and even then they can never give away the right to rule over their life.
Themes
