USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -Locke believed that since the people give the power to the government, they have the right to take it away if the government is not serving the purposes for which it was established. They can then create a new government.

Detailed explanation-2: -The purpose of government, Locke wrote, is to secure and protect the God-given inalienable natural rights of the people. For their part, the people must obey the laws of their rulers. Thus, a sort of contract exists between the rulers and the ruled.

Detailed explanation-3: -Locke believed that in a state of nature, people protect their natural rights – life, liberty and property-by using their own strength and skill. The weaker and less skilled would find it difficult to protect their rights.

Detailed explanation-4: -For Locke, the government must be a “neutral judge” of law with no right to interfere in the lives of the individual. The most radical idea to come from Locke’s pen was the idea of governmental legitimacy. Locke believed that a government should be beholden to the people rather than vice-versa.

Detailed explanation-5: -Government, he argued, should be limited to securing the life and property of its citizens, and is only necessary because in an ideal, anarchic state of nature, various problems arise that would make life more insecure than under the protection of a minimal state.