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Second Treatise of Government
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Chapters 8-11Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 8 Summary: “Of the Beginning of Political Societies”
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).
According to Locke, people, like children, can become accustomed to and comfortable with the sort of government that watches over them like a protective father. But this is not a good enough reason to keep such a government around; in fact, those types of systems often lead to oppression and tyranny, and a people is forced to start all over again after shrugging off the paternal ghost that haunted their previous political system.
Locke’s third point is neatly articulated in this quote: “a child is born a subject of no country or government” (63). This is important because it ties in his metaphors relating the family dynamic to the state. In this sense, and through this lens, people begin their lives as children and are born totally free. They may be subject to the rule of the family, but they are still free by natural right. It is only as they become older, and adopt reason, and begin to understand the world and their relationship to it, that they are both able and ready to enter into a more complex agreement with a given community and political society.
Chapter 9 Summary: “Of the Ends of Political Society and Government”
This chapter emphasizes Locke’s beliefs about government, lest anyone confuse his extensive discussion of government as love for government. To this end, Locke reasserts that the “great and chief end […] of men’s uniting into common-wealths, and putting themselves under government, is the preservation of their property” (66).
Throughout this section Locke explains that a government is only created by a people to satisfy certain conditions that cannot be met when fully in the state of nature. To support his point, he reintroduces concepts and necessities of government, such as the need for an impartial judge during disputes, a way to protect property, and a means for a community to administrate itself without having to appeal to the impersonal force of God.
He reminds his audience that men give up quite a bit when they enter into society—such as the liberty, equality, and executive power they possessed in the state of nature. Given that sacrifice, the government must remember that it is not there to further subjugate the people but to amend and counter their loss of natural rights and privileges with the political privileges and rights it can bestow upon any individual who chooses to enter into it.
Chapter 10 Summary: “Of the Forms of a Common-Wealth”
This chapter, the shortest of the essay, is less a full point and more a sidenote. Locke clarifies that when he says “commonwealth,” he doesn’t mean democracy; he means any community of people who have banded together under shared rules and common goals. One step further from the community, and another part of the commonwealth, is the creation of the political society—the government.
Chapter 11 Summary: “Of the Ends of Political Society and Government”
This chapter provides a full account of Locke’s conceptions of the utility and ultimate function of the legislature within a community and political society. It’s clear that he holds the legislature’s responsibility in high regard, as he writes, “This legislative is not only the supreme power of the common-wealth, but sacred and unalterable in the hands where the community have once placed it” (69).
Locke explains that the legislature is an immensely significant part of any community or political society because it’s responsible for making new laws and for protecting and watching over the old laws that first formed the political society. This doesn’t mean Locke believes old laws should be untouched or that the legislature has total control over them. In fact, he believes quite the opposite, as he goes on to say:
The rules that they make for other men’s actions, must, as well as their own other men’s actions, be conformable to the law of nature, i.e. to the will of God, of which that is a declaration, and the fundamental law of nature being the preservation of mankind, no human sanction can be good, or valid, against it (71).
Locke underscores that the legislature’s importance and status is not cause for the people or the legislature to believe it is above anyone in any absolute sense of the word. It’s critical to the health of the political society and the welfare of the people that the legislative assembly and its members behave responsibly and do all they can to remember they are still part of the community and its people. If they forget that their interests lay in the public good and common interest of their neighbors, then they will cease being legislators and will gradually become tyrants.
Chapters 8-11 Analysis
This grouping forms the second part of Locke’s “Foundation” section, as it further details his beliefs about the origins of political societies and how they began to be organized.
He continues the family metaphor from previous chapters, again making it clear that a parent does not hold any superior power of possession over the property of their child. This is a clear analogy to the powers that governments do not hold, but so often claim to hold, over their citizens.
Locke also reiterates that governments are not created to serve themselves or for their own good; they are created to serve the community, for the community’s good. Any government, any person, who makes the mistake of believing the government’s role or status to be superior to themselves and the community is committing a grave error that could enable despotic, tyrannical behavior from present and future leaders. It is just as important for the people to remember the government’s place in the scope of their lives as it is for leaders to remember that their role exists to serve the people’s interest, not their own.
Finally, Locke begins to specify the parts of a functional government, starting with the legislature. He considers this component to be one of the most vital, and therefore one of the most threatening, parts of any political society. It holds immense responsibility in guarding old laws and passing new ones, but its members, and the community, must be vigilant to ensure that the legislature does not begin to distance itself from or pride itself above the needs and desires of the people. Such deviation from purpose marks the beginning of a descent into tyranny, which can only be resolved by reform or, if the political structure is too thoroughly compromised, by deposition of the government itself.
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