Locke Reading Reaction

After reading the Locke reading I was surprised at how closely his work matched the way our government is constructed in this country. Obviously the Founding Fathers of our country considered many ideas about the best way to shape a government before constructing an outline for it, but it seems as though Locke's beliefs and writings had a profound effect on them.

Locke's ideas seemed to be a response to his feelings on an absolute monarchy. The reading we did on Hobbes he explains an absolute monarchy where one sovereign had total control. The sovereign had all rights to the government, while all those being governed had no write to judge or object to the government. This allowed the sovereign to have absolute power. The point of Hobbes absolute monarch was to take them out of the state of nature. The state of nature is when everyone is living in fear, acting for and protecting themselves, with no trust or companionship with anyone else.

Locke argues that an absolute monarchy doesn't take them out of the state of nature because the sovereign has absolute power and thus can do whatever he wants without being judge. This leaves the people under the sovereign in fear with no power to fight back. Locke stressed that one person could not control all aspects of the government without any control over the one leader. Lock, thus, developed the concept of checks and balances. Locke believed that there must be different branches of government that each have their own responsibilities.

Reading Locke's ideas, that seem to be the heart of our government, astonishes me that his idea of government have carried on for so long. I would suspect that ideas written so long ago would be out of date. However, despite the expected flaws that every government has, I feel as though a democracy is a very effective and efficient way of running a government.