A Macat Analysis of John Locke’s Two Treatises of Government

First available in 1689, John Locke’s Two Treatises of Government is considered one of the most important works ever written on the foundations of government. Published anonymously, it argues against the popular idea at the time that monarchs have a God-given right to rule. Instead, Locke proposes that sovereignty—supreme authority—ultimately resides with the people. He argues that citizens have not just the right but, in fact, the duty to renegotiate their relationship with those who govern, even if that means changing the institutions of the state and establishing a new legislative power.



Locke’s ideas influenced political thinkers in his native England, as well as in the United States and France. Some of the language in the American “Declaration of Independence” of 1776 recalls Locke’s arguments, and Thomas Jefferson—the principal author of the “Declaration”—called Locke one of “the three greatest men who have ever lived.”



For over three centuries, Two Treatises of Government has endured as a key text in political philosophy.