American government institutions and processes

American Government

Explain why in a state of nature, free men are willing to relinquish some of their freedoms.

In a state of nature, free men are willing to relinquish some of their freedoms for a variety of reasons, the main one being a desire to live without fear of one's fellow man. A state of liberty is not a state of license, and the law of nature obliges everyone. However, free men recognize that they may have to relinquish some of their freedoms in order to develop a system to compel one another to follow natural law. Under a theory of natural law, every person has the ability to enforce the natural law. The problem arises with the fact that in a state of nature, men can be judges in their own cases, making it unlikely that they will acknowledge their faults. Therefore, in order to ensure that laws will be followed, that crime will be prevented and punished, and that the wronged parties will receive reparation, free men relinquish some of their freedoms.

Summarize the three reasons Locke gives for why property is not protected in a state of nature.

According to Locke, property is not protected in a state of nature because, in a state of nature, everything exists in a common store. Human beings, owning themselves, also own the products of their own labor; to hold otherwise would reduce men to slaves. Therefore, each person has a right to take things from the common store if he uses his labor to do so; for example, by picking fruit from a tree. This does allow men to own private property, once he has combined his labor with the property to exercise possession over it. However, this does not permit a man to own real property, because each individual has the same right to exercise control over the property in the common store. Each individual has the right to take from the common store because nature is a state of plenty, as long as people leave usable property for others. Moreover, taking from nature does not mean depriving anyone else of something as long as individuals only take as much as they can use before it spoils.

3. Define democracy, oligarchy, monarchy and mixed government according to Locke.

According to Locke, once men have united into a society, if they all have the power of the community and then appoint officers who execute laws, then a government is a perfect democracy. If they put the power of making laws into the hands of a few select men, and that power is transmitted by succession or heirship, then the government is an oligarchy. If the society puts the power to make laws in the hands of one man, then it is a monarchy. A mixed government combines forms of any of the described governments.

4. According to Locke, what is the 'social contract'?

The social contract refers to the idea that people in a state of nature will willingly come together to form a state. People form a state to provide a neutral magistrate that can protect the lives, liberty, and property of the people of the state. Moreover, the power of the legislators are limited in the social contract, because their laws are only legitimate if they achieve a common good.

1. Read Federalist Papers #10, 51, and 78. Prepare a short summary of what they said.