num_pages: 258
description: John Locke laid the groundwork of modern liberalism. He argued that political societies exist to defend the lives, liberties, and properties of their citizens, and that no government has any authority except by the consent of the people. When rulers become tyrants and act against the common good, then the people have a right of revolution against them. Writing against the backdrop of Charles II's savage purge of the Whig movement, Locke set out to attack monarchical absolutism and demolished the intellectual fabric of the divine right of rulers.
language: English
title: Two Treatises of Civil Government
titlecomplete: Two Treatises of Civil Government
genres: History, Classics, Law, School, Theory, Economics, Philosophy, Politics, Political Science, Nonfiction
ratings_count: 17960
publisher: Dutton Adult