John Locke's influential 1689 philosophical treatise argues that governments derive their authority from the consent of the governed, not divine right. Written during England's political upheaval, it established foundational principles of natural rights, property, and limited government that would profoundly shape modern democratic thought.
Reader, thou hast here the beginning and end of a discourse concerning government; what fate has otherwise disposed of the papers that should have filled up the middle, and were more than all the rest, it is not worth while to tell thee. These, which remain, I hope are sufficient to establish the throne of our great restorer, our present King William; to make good his title, in the consent of the people, which being the only one of all lawful governments, he has more fully and clearly, than any prince in Christendom; and to justify to the world the people of England, whose love of their just and natural rights, with their resolution to preserve them, saved the nation when it was on the very brink of slavery and ruin. If these papers have that evidence, I flatter myself is to be found in them, there will be no great miss of those which are lost, and my reader may be satisfied without them…Continue reading →
A 17th-century English philosopher whose revolutionary ideas shaped modern democracy, this influential thinker argued that governments derive power from the consent of the governed and that all people possess natural rights to life, liberty, and property. His groundbreaking theories directly influenced the American Declaration of Independence and continue defining democratic principles worldwide. All works by John Locke →
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