John Locke’s Political Theory: Constitutional Monarchy & Liberal State
John Locke’s Political Theory
Locke had a great influence on political theory, upholding the principles of constitutional monarchy against any type of absolute monarchical power. The state model he proposed is derived from a liberal state, where state intervention is minimal and where the source of political power is the people. He even recognized the right to revolt if the elected politicians cease to represent them.
Locke refuted Filmer’s absolutist doctrine and the theory of the divine right of kings in the first treatise of civil government. He maintained that revolution was not only a right but an obligation, the right to revolt against tyranny. Unlike other contractualists, Locke believed that rulers, as administrators of the people, can be legitimately overthrown if they fail to deliver their functions before their term is over.
Locke and his supporters argued that the state does not exist for the spiritual salvation of human beings, but to serve the citizens and ensure their property, understanding property as the life, liberty, and possessions to which everyone has a right. This is the foundation of the constitution, which limits state power and takes care of the individual. Some have spoken of a double pact in Locke’s doctrine: one to form civil society, which cannot be broken, and another to form a government, which can be annulled in case of dereliction of duties, with other representatives delegated for the object.
Locke was the first to formulate the principle of the separation of powers as the only possible guarantee of repeating the natural precept. He establishes the sovereignty that was later recognized as fundamental by liberal theorists. To protect the individual from potential abuse of power by the state, he proposes a balance of political power in the legislative and supreme executive power. The legislative power, represented by the legislative body, presents citizens, their social status, interests, and constituted rights, while the executive power is delegated to ensure the laws.
Natural Law and the State of Nature
Natural law is the set of laws that govern the state of nature. It is the point of departure for all of Locke’s state-building political theory. The state of nature occurs in a hypothetical, never-existed form, considered necessary to describe a before to understand the later; what the state of nature was to understand the civil state. Locke started from a much more optimistic vision than Hobbes regarding the status of natural law.
He maintained that there is a natural law that governs man and that this is a moral law that can be accessed through reason. This law implies rights such as self-preservation, defense of the right to life and liberty, which involve duality, not only implying a right but also becoming a duty. The problem is the absence of a superior authority that prevents respect for the law by all. The most vulnerable is the defense of property. For this, society, law, and authority are needed.
Individual property is the central element and point of departure for liberal thinking on which the state is based. On the individuality of possession as a natural base of power, intervention has not been allowed without the approval of individual citizens. This contract transfers its power to the state. This transfer is the foundation of the social contract or agreement. The contract is conceived as a truth of reason as far as it results in a link in the chain of reasoning with isolated individuals, hypotheses free and equal to the common power and reciprocal. This contract states in a democratic, free, and equal way, contracting for themselves and their own will. The law being restricted by the proposed origin of the liberal state by Locke is democratic and mutually agreed between individuals. The principal attribution is that the state law can only do what the law expressly confines to the legislature for the basic common good. The three powers (Legislative, Executive, and Federative) come to fill the gap of a law firm, an impartial judge, and an effective executive that the state of nature suffers.