Locke

            
            
             John Locke's Second Treatise of Government was written in the 18th Century only to defend the cause of the Glorious Revolution of 1688 in England and later used to justify the American Revolution of the late 18th Century. No one believed Locke's work would carry much weight after the end of the 18th Century, but recently the revival of his work has proved this statement wrong. Locke has since become a classical contribution to the theory of constitutional government. The emergence of the communist world and the third world put the liberal state under a microscope that was intended to show its weaknesses. However, the liberal state fought back by finding their political base in John Locke's Second Treatise of Government. Therefore, Locke's political views of popular sovereignty, mixed government, separation of powers, and countervailance model became the origin of the theory of constitutional government. .
             Locke defined political power as "the right of making laws with penalties of death, and all less penalties, for the regulating and preserving of property, and of employing the force of the community in the execution of such laws, and in the defense of the commonwealth from foreign injury, and all this only for the public good." In Second Treatise of Government, Locke abandoned Bodin's idea of sovereignty and adopted popular sovereignty. Locke argued that a society would never grant absolute or arbitrary power to any government. Locke backed his argument by stating that no man "has an absolute or arbitrary power over himself or over any other", thus no man can transfer absolute arbitrary power over to another or a government (p.70)." Also, Locke pointed out that an absolute or arbitrary government would not preserve the most important intentions of a society, being the protection of life, liberty, and fortune. As a result, an absolute arbitrary government would put them in a worse condition than the state of nature.