Political science and international relations -Paper 1- Western thinkers - Locke.

Introduction:

Locke was deeply effected by the glorious revolution during which Britain changed from a Monarchy to a partial parliamentary democracy. So it follows that Locke's theory should in some way support the overthrowing the current king in favour of something else, in Locke's case it was natural rights of men.

Locke , Hobbes and State of Nature:

Much comparison was done on Locke and Hobbes, as both of them had discussed state of nature and natural law. But the difference is that for Locke, the state of nature is a peaceful place with people guided by the natural law. The requirement was for an independent judge who can interpret these laws and punish whoever transgresses them. Without whom people's self interest would come in way of punishing themselves.

Perhaps rightly so, many had said that Locke's theory is Hobbes just in a palatable language.

But perhaps the biggest difference is that Locke's natural theory is said to be derived from divine right and hence immutable. Hobbe's were never derived from god, but was rather concentrated on human reasoning and morality.

While Hobbes argued for an absolute sovereign, Locke wanted a legislature and executive with legislature drawing the laws based on natural law and executive upholding them. Here the legislative is the supreme authority.

Locke and the debate on Capitalism:

While Hobbes, Aristotle propounded the importance of property for the well being of humans, Locke went a step further and talked about the the method and limits of property accumulation.

As humans own their mind and body, anything made out of applying those to what nature provided becomes a man's property. But this was limited by labor [As there is only so much a human can do], spoilage [One is not to spoil] and sufficiency [Not greedy and be just sufficient].

He also accepted the transfer of property as part of natural right and hence with the money being the medium, it enabled some people to accumulate wealth. This was used by many Marxist critic to label Locke as a capitalist theorists with sole emphasis of natural law was to further one's greed.

Even though this seems right, Locke was more concentrated on divine origin of natural rights and less on capitalist theories. His lack of view on the heavily regulated mercantile economy, him arguing for forgiving atheist riots [The human beliefs, edicts and oaths does not bide them as they don't believe in god] proves this point.

Source:

IGNOU - Western Political Thinkers.