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Western Political Thought

Notes framework of law. In the absence of law there was no freedom. Law granted freedom as it kept
individuals from being subject to the arbitrary will of another person. Liberty was personal
independence and thus ruled out slavery as it meant subjugation to the arbitrary will of another
person: liberty was to be free from restrain and violence by others, which cannot be, where there
was no law. In an explicit statement, Locke stated that freedom as the ‘liberty to follow my own
will in all things, where the rule prescribes not; and not to be subject to the inconstant, uncertain,
unknown, arbitrary will of another man’. In a concise manner Locke offered his views of freedom:
‘the freedom, then, of man and liberty of acting according to his own will is grounded on his
having reason, which is able to instruct him in that law he is to govern himself by, and make him
know how far he is left to the freedom of his own will’.
Locke defended personal independence and freedom as fundamental human rights. None had a
right to coerce or dominate another in the state of nature. Everyone had an equal right to one’s
natural freedom, without being subjected to the will or authority of any other man. Locke clarified
that the laws of nature were those that reason dictated. Since rights and the duty of self-preservation
were derived from the laws of nature, the most important of these was the right to hold others
responsible for a breach of the law and to punish them accordingly. Though Locke categorically
rejected the right of a person to kill one’s self, he granted the right to inflict penalties, including
the death penalty, on others who had violated the laws in general, or if another person’s life was
threatened. Locke explicitly rejected the right of the individual to commit suicide and murder.
Locke provided the theoretical basis to the concept of natural rights. His theory had three political
implications: (1) since human beings derived and enjoyed equal rights under the law of nature
none were under the political authority of another without their consent; (2) the maintenance and
protection of these rights was the primary function of the government; and (3) rights set and
defined the limits of governmental authority. Locke’s arguments were reiterated by Paine and
Jefferson in the eighteenth century; the significance being the establishment of link between
universality of rights and idea of constitutional liberal government. The Declaration of the American
Independence (1776) stating that the Creator had endowed the individuals ‘with certain inalienable
rights’ among which the most sacred is liberty and the subsequently first ten amendments to the
US constitution in 1789 squashed the revival of the ancient conception of liberty made during the
French Revolution of 1789, in which the individual would be subordinated to the collective whole.
This resonated subsequently in all the charters on rights including the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights (1948).

Nature of Political Authority
In order to explain the origin of political power, Locke began with a description of the state of
nature, which for him was one of perfect equality and freedom regulated by the laws of nature.
The individual was naturally free and became a political subject out of free choice. Even after the
establishment of a political society, the individual retained a private sphere where he pursued his
activities and aspirations. This dichotomy between the state and society, between the private and
public, was fundamental to Locke’s theorizing. Since then it has become an integral part of the
Western intellectual tradition (Wolin 1960: 305–309).
Locke rejected Filmer’s biblical account of the origins of political power, without abandoning
religious foundations. His theory rested on a firm and explicit moral relationship between the
human being and God:
For Men being all the workmanship of one Omnipotent, and infinitely wise Maker; All
the servants of one Sovereign Master, sent into the World by his order and about his
business, they are his Property, whose Workmanship they are, made to last during
his, not one another’s Pleasure. And being furnished with like Faculties, sharing all in
one Community of Nature, there cannot be supposed any such subordination among

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