Theories of Government

• Governing authority comes from conquest

• Governing authority is maintained through strength

  • If you maintain order, you continue to rule

JUSTIFIED BY FORCE

JUSTIFIED BY GOD

JUSTIFIED BY CONSENT

• Governing authority comes from divine command

• Governing authority is maintained through providence

  • You maintain rule so long as God allows

• Governing authority comes from societal agreement

• Governing authority is maintained through popularity

  • If you maintain public trust, you continue to rule

All people are the creation of one all-powerful and wise Maker. Because we are equally God’s workmanship, no person is born with the right to rule absolutely over another. Since we share the same nature and abilities, there is no natural subordination that allows one man to destroy or dominate the rest. Therefore, no one can claim divine authority to rule others without their consent.

John Locke, First Treatise Ch. 1
Lexile 1200 via ChatGPT

Where law ends, tyranny begins. If a ruler goes beyond the limits of the law and harms others, he no longer acts as a true authority. When someone in power uses force to achieve what the law does not permit, he stops being an officer of the law and may be resisted like any other man who invades another’s rights. A person with legal authority to arrest me in the street becomes no better than a thief if he breaks into my home to enforce the law. If this holds true for lower officers, I see no reason why it should not also apply to the highest rulers.

John Locke, Second Treatise Ch. 8
Lexile: 1200 via ChatGPT

"Men being, as has been said, by nature all free, equal, and independent, no one can be put out of this estate, and subjected to the political power of another, without his own consent. The only way whereby anyone divests himself of his natural liberty, and puts on the bonds of civil society, is by agreeing with other men to join and unite into a community, for their comfortable, safe, and peaceable living one amongst another, in a secure enjoyment of their properties."

John Locke, Second Treatise Ch. 8
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