Second Treatise, Chapter XVIII: Tyranny
Sect. 202. Where-ever law ends, tyranny begins, if the law be transgressed
to another’s harm; and whosoever in authority exceeds the power given him by
the law, and makes use of the force he has under his command, to compass that
upon the subject, which the law allows not, ceases in that to be a magistrate;
and, acting without authority, may be opposed, as any other man, who by force
invades the right of another.
Second Treatise,
Chapter XIX: The Dissolution of Government
Sect. 213. This being usually brought about by such in the commonwealth who
misuse the power they have; it is hard to consider it aright, and know at whose
door to lay it, without knowing the form of government in which it happens. Let
us suppose then the legislative placed in the concurrence of three distinct
persons.
(1). A single hereditary person, having the
constant, supreme, executive power, and with it the power of convoking and
dissolving the other two within certain periods of time.
(2). An assembly of hereditary nobility.
(3). An assembly of representatives chosen,
pro tempore, by the people. Such a form of government supposed, it is evident,
Sect. 214. First, That when such a single person, or prince, sets up his own
arbitrary will in place of the laws, which are the will of the society,
declared by the legislative, then the legislative is changed: for that being in
effect the legislative, whose rules and laws are put in execution, and required
to be obeyed; when other laws are set up, and other rules pretended, and
inforced, than what the legislative, constituted by the society, have enacted,
it is plain that the legislative is changed. Whoever introduces new laws, not
being thereunto authorized by the fundamental appointment of the society, or
subverts the old, disowns and overturns the power by which they were made, and
so sets up a new legislative.
Sect. 215. Secondly, When the prince hinders the legislative from assembling
in its due time, or from acting freely, pursuant to those ends for which it was
constituted, the legislative is altered: for it is not a certain number of men,
no, nor their meeting, unless they have also freedom of debating, and leisure
of perfecting, what is for the good of the society, wherein the legislative
consists: when these are taken away or altered, so as to deprive the society of
the due exercise of their power, the legislative is truly altered; for it is
not names that constitute governments, but the use and exercise of those powers
that were intended to accompany them; so that he, who takes away the freedom,
or hinders the acting of the legislative in its due seasons, in effect takes
away the legislative, and puts an end to the government.
Sect. 216. Thirdly, When, by the arbitrary power of the prince, the
electors, or ways of election, are altered, without the consent, and contrary
to the common interest of the people, there also the legislative is altered:
for, if others than those whom the society hath authorized thereunto, do chuse,
or in another way than what the society hath prescribed, those chosen are not
the legislative appointed by the people.
Sect. 217. Fourthly, The delivery also of the people into the subjection of
a foreign power, either by the prince, or by the legislative, is certainly a
change of the legislative, and so a dissolution of the government: for the end
why people entered into society being to be preserved one intire, free,
independent society, to be governed by its own laws; this is lost, whenever
they are given up into the power of another.
Sect. 218. Why, in such a constitution as this, the dissolution of the
government in these cases is to be imputed to the prince, is evident; because
he, having the force, treasure and offices of the state to employ, and often
persuading himself, or being flattered by others, that as supreme magistrate he
is uncapable of controul; he alone is in a condition to make great advances
toward such changes, under pretence of lawful authority, and has it in his
hands to terrify or suppress opposers, as factious, seditious, and enemies to
the government: whereas no other part of the legislative, or people, is capable
by themselves to attempt any alteration of the legislative, without open and
visible rebellion, apt enough to be taken notice of, which, when it prevails,
produces effects very little different from foreign conquest. Besides, the
prince in such a form of government, having the power of dissolving the other
parts of the legislative, and thereby rendering them private persons, they can
never in opposition to him, or without his concurrence, alter the legislative
by a law, his consent being necessary to give any of their decrees that
sanction. But yet, so far as the other parts of the legislative any way
contribute to any attempt upon the government, and do either promote, or not,
what lies in them, hinder such designs, they are guilty, and partake in this,
which is certainly the greatest crime which men can partake of one towards
another.
Sec. 219. There is one way more whereby such a government may be dissolved,
and that is: When he who has the supreme executive power, neglects and abandons
that charge, so that the laws already made can no longer be put in execution.
This is demonstratively to reduce all to anarchy, and so effectually to
dissolve the government: for laws not being made for themselves, but to be, by
their execution, the bonds of the society, to keep every part of the body
politic in its due place and function; when that totally ceases, the government
visibly ceases, and the people become a confused multitude, without order or
connexion. Where there is no longer the administration of justice, for the
securing of men’s rights, nor any remaining power within the community to direct
the force, or provide for the necessities of the public, there certainly is no
government left. Where the laws cannot be executed, it is all one as if there
were no laws; and a government without laws is, I suppose, a mystery in
politics, unconceivable to human capacity, and inconsistent with human society.
Sect. 222. The reason why men enter into society, is the preservation of
their property. … whenever the
legislators endeavour to take away, and destroy the property of the people, or
to reduce them to slavery under arbitrary power, they put themselves into a
state of war with the people, who are thereupon absolved from any farther
obedience, and are left to the common refuge, which God hath provided for all
men, against force and violence. Whensoever therefore the legislative shall
transgress this fundamental rule of society; and either by ambition, fear,
folly or corruption, endeavour to grasp themselves, or put into the hands of
any other, an absolute power over the lives, liberties, and estates of the
people; by this breach of trust they forfeit the power the people had put into
their hands for quite contrary ends, and it devolves to the people, who have a
right to resume their original liberty, and, by the establishment of a new
legislative, (such as they shall think fit) provide for their own safety and
security, which is the end for which they are in society.
Locke, The Second Treatise of Government (1690;
written c. 1681)
Source: John Locke, Second Treatise of Government from
Two Treatises of Government, available online as a Project Gutenberg
eBook. Note: Locke’s Two Treatises
are popularly described “as something written after an event to ‘justify’ a
revolution [i.e., the Glorious Revolution].” Rather, they are better understood
“as something written before the event to promote a revolution.” See, for example, Maurice Cranston, John
Locke: A Biography (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1985), p. 208.
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