POLI 231 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Limited Government

• School: McGill University
• Department: Political Science
• Course: POLI 231
• Professor: Arash Abizadeh

Document Summary

Lecture 6: locke and second treatise of government. A theory of trust that delineates the duties and obligations of each. Locke disagrees and says there is no natural form of political authority, as by nature, we are all free and equal. Political institutions are conventional, and the fundamental basis of authority is conventions. Locke constructs a natural form of society before society existed. Tells us what makes the exercise of political power legitimate. Our enjoyment of property is insecure because there is not established positive law. No common executive power that will carry out these laws. No imperial judge (distinguishes state of nature from civil society) State of nature is not necessarily a state of war: State of nature: form of community, trust. State of nature: a law exists in this, known to all human beings humans can discover what the laws of nature are.