John Locke on democracy

Dutch government buildings in The Hague. At hte left the office of the Prime Minister (the "Little Tower").
 Behind the office buildings of the ministries,  the roof and towers of the parliament are just visible.

In these days of increasing polarization and the rise of autocracy, it should be good to read John Locke’s “Second Treatise of Government”. The English philosopher John Locke (1632-1704) is one of the intellectual fathers of western democracy and an important advocate of toleration (which he defended especially in his “A Letter Concerning Toleration”). The Second Treatise was first published in 1689 (though anonymously), but Locke had written it already in the years 1680-81.

Unlike Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679), who thought that “A man is a wolf to another man” and that people were continuously making war with each other, according to Locke people are basically peaceful and inclined to consensus and to cooperate with others and to help them. We can say that peace and cooperation are the basic concepts for describing the natural state of society. In this original natural state – which is a hypothetical idea for Locke; not a (pre)historical fact – everybody is equal to everybody and free to do what they please, “though this be a state of liberty, yet it is not a state of licence: though man in that state have an uncontroulable liberty to dispose of his person or possessions, yet he has not liberty to destroy himself, or so much as any creature in his possession, but where some nobler use than its bare preservation calls for it. … [T]here cannot be supposed any … subordination among us, that may authorize us to destroy one another, as if we were made for one another’s uses, as the inferior ranks of creatures are for our’s.” (Sect. 6.) However, if everybody is “absolute lord of his own person and possessions, equal to the greatest, and subject to no body”, there is a problem, for if everybody is his own king “as much as he, every man his equal, … the enjoyment of the property he has in this state is very unsafe, very unsecure. … [This makes people] willing to join in society with others, who are already united, or have a mind to unite, for the mutual preservation of their lives, liberties and … property.” (Sect. 123.) In other words, people choose a government and a king or other ruler. The power of this ruler is not absolute. Far from that. Rulers derive their authority only from the consent of the governed. No government is legitimate if it doesn’t have this consent and is controlled either directly by the people, which means by the consent of the majority, or, more often, by representatives chosen by them. If it doesn’t, it “subverts the end of government”. (Sect. 140)
The idea that a government must be based on people’s consent – or paraphrasing the American (but Lockean) statement “no taxation without representation” by “no laws without representation” – has an important consequence: It is allowed to overthrow any government that rules without this consent. When consent is lacking, the people have the right to impeach and remove the ruler. When a ruler fails or exceeds the powers he received from the people, the latter have a right of resistance. “When any one, or more, shall take upon them to make laws, whom the people have not appointed so to do, they make laws without authority, which the people are not therefore bound to obey; by which means they come again to be out of subjection, and may constitute to themselves a new legislative, as they think best, being in full liberty to resist the force of those, who without authority would impose any thing upon them.” (Sect. 212; cf. Sect. 219) “Whensoever therefore the legislative [=ruler] shall transgress this fundamental rule of society; and either by ambition, fear, folly or corruption, endeavour to grasp themselves, or put into the hands of any other, an absolute power over the lives, liberties, and estates of the people; by this breach of trust they forfeit the power the people had put into their hands for quite contrary ends, and it devolves to the people, who have a right to resume their original liberty, and, by the establishment of a new legislative, (such as they shall think fit) provide for their own safety and security…” And it is not only when a ruler directly damages the lives, property etc. of the governed that he can be removed, but he “acts also contrary to his trust, when he either employs the force, treasure, and offices of the society, to corrupt the representatives, and gain them to his purposes; or openly pre-engages the electors, and prescribes to their choice, such, whom he has, by solicitations, threats, promises, or otherwise, won to his designs; and employs them to bring in such, who have promised before-hand what to vote, and what to enact. Thus to regulate candidates and electors, and new-model the ways of election, what is it but to cut up the government by the roots, and poison the very fountain of public security?” (Sect. 222.)

In short
- People basically live in peace together and are inclined to cooperate.
- In order to regulate interhuman cooperation and to solve frictions between people we need a ruler.
- Therefore, people voluntarily give up their executive power and place it into the hands of a civic community, where, however, the majority holds supreme power.
- The community delegates this power to a government and ruler to enact and enforce laws for the public good. Government and ruler are controlled by the people or their representatives.
- When a ruler or government abuses its power, tramples on the people's rights, or governs without popular consent, the government becomes illegitimate.
- When a government has become illegitimate, the people have a right if not an obligation to resist and to remove it and to replace it with a new government.

Alas, there is a big gap between dream and reality, also in politics.