In the seventeenth century, many new philosophical ideas were introduced in Europe. Europe’s inhabitants were influenced by the Renaissance, and questioned all that is known and attempted to increase their knowledge. The seventeenth century was an age of reason, the basis of all knowledge had to be proven systematically using facts. There were several philosophers who greatly influenced later generations. Politically, an English philosopher named John Locke used reason and facts to describe the ideal government. His ideas in his Two Treatises of Government stress the importance of individual rights over the power of government. This is in contrast to another influential philosopher, Thomas Hobbes, who emphasizes the need for a strong government. Locke’s views can be compared to the Levellers, a group of radicals a generation before Locke, who opposed the monarchy of Great Britain. The Levellers created An Agreement of the Free People of England, in which they present their views on human rights and government. Many of the ideas shown in the Levellers works are similar to Locke’s views. Most of the Leveller’s ideas are compatible with Locke’s, with slight differences being evident.
The Levellers, a radical group in England during the mid seventeenth century, created a series of petitions to the leaders of England expressing the reforms they wished enforced. The ideas in these petitions were eventually gathered together in 1649 in a document titled An Agreement of the Free People of England. The Levellers, lead by John Lilburne and William Walwyn among others, declared a state of nature was present in England, and that the old government no longer had the right to authority.[1]In the Agreement, the Levellers outline the government they demand, or rather wish, to be created in place of the old government. To begin, they state that England is in a crisis, and being servants of God, it is their moral obligation to do what they can to help their country, which they believe they are doing by creating the agreement. [2] They believe God has created an opportunity to make the country better, and the basis of all their ideas comes from their religious views. They praise God that the situation is not worse than it is, and that they have not made the circumstances worse by their actions.[3] The main points of the Agreement are the abolishment of monarchy, whish they refer to as “arbitrary power,” along with removing secondary leaders, creating restrictions on the government, and the removal of past offenses.[4] The Levellers demand that the supreme power of England resides in a representative body of 400 members who represent the citizens of England. The monarchs of England have no power whatsoever over the people. The representatives are chosen “according to natural right” democratically, and must be over the age of twenty. They can not be a servant, a member of the clergy or military, or hold any other political office such as treasury.[5]In addition, representatives serve only one term. These restrictions to office are to limit corrupt representatives. The Levellers mention that the main power of the representative body is to ensure peace and trade with other nations, and preserve the rights of citizens, which include the right to life, liberty, property, and land.In addition, the body may tax and raise money, increase the freedoms of the people, and pardon criminals.[6] In addition to the rights given the representative body, the Levellers list restrictions. In fact, twenty-one of the thirty paragraphs explain limitations of the body.The majority of these restrictions protect citizens’ rights. The first limitation listed prohibits representatives from creating any laws that force civilians to worship a religion or punishing a person for his religious beliefs. The second limitation prevents the body the ability to force a person to serve in war.Thirdly, no law may be passed concerning a person’s body or property, or to destroy a man’s estate.[7]In addition, no man’s property may be taken away from him by law, and the body does not have the ability to make all land public. Various other restrictions involve legal and financial matters. These include the body’s inability to pass laws punishing a person for refusing to testify in court or depriving a person of witnesses in court, trading to a foreign nation, and passing laws allowing individuals to be exempt from taxes.Capital punishment is banned except in cases of treason and murder. The final limitation is that the Agreement of the Free People may not be altered.[8]
John Locke attempts to use reason to explain the ideal government and its purpose.Locke’s main idea is focused on individual rights, and that the government should serve its citizens. Locke begins the Second Treatise explaining man in the wild, before government existed. He describes men existing before government as living in a State of Nature.[9] The State of Nature contains a law of reason, which God created. Locke deduces that men have complete freedom to do as they see fit according to reason in this natural state.[10]As the law of nature demands self-preservation, all men have natural rights to ensure their survival, such as the right to their own bodies, actions, and property. All men are equal, being children of God, and each have the same individual right.[11]Men have an obligation to punish men who violate others rights, whom are acting against God’s will.[12]Locke states that criminals do not live by reason, and therefore are dangerous to mankind.[13]Locke calls men who violate others as living in a State of War. However, any law against crimes would be useless unless there was some power to enforce the law. It is this reason, Locke determines, that government is created, to protect people’s natural rights from offenders. Individuals consent to being part of whatever government or agreement they please so as to protect their rights from the State of War, therefore creating a social contract between the man and his government.[14]
Locke devotes a large portion of the Second Treatise discussing the rights men have in society. Locke defines natural liberty as the ability to do as one pleases under natural law.[15] However, upon willingly submission into society, an individual forfeits this liberty for a freedom to act under a common law.In addition, by joining society, an individual achieves freedom from absolute power, which one could not guarantee oneself by living in the wild. Being free from absolute power, every man has the right to his own property. Locke defines property systematically. He states that God gave men the Earth so that they may use it to their advantage.As humans own the body God has given them, the actions and labor they commit belong to them as well.[16]Locke further goes to say that human labor creates the difference between community property and individual property. If a man cultivates land and lives off of it, it can be assumed it is his property. However, men cannot take more property than they need.[17] He states, “As much land as a man tills, plants, improves, cultivates, and can use the product of, so much is his property”[18]Locke is very clear that if a man takes more than he is capable of using, and it goes to waste, than it is as if he has robbed other people. Likewise, he who leaves enough land for another to sufficiently use is as if he took nothing at all.
The ideal government for Locke protects people’s natural rights and helps the common good. Locke describes a government with a legislature and an executive power to enforce laws created by the legislature.[19] The legislature is to be made up of representatives of the people, proportionate to the country’s population.Locke determines that while the legislature does not need to constantly be in session, the executive power must always be at work to enforce the laws. This reason determines why executive and legislative powers are to be separate from each other. Locke describes certain limits which the legislature must abide by. First and foremost, the legislature most be devoted to the public good of the society. In addition, nothing except the legislature may pass laws for the country, and members of the society must abide by the laws (assuming the laws are for the common good). As all men are equal, the laws passed by the legislature must apply to all members of the society. [20] Furthermore, the legislature cannot take or tax men’s private property without the consent of those individuals. Lastly, the legislature cannot transfer the power of making laws to other sources, so that the legislature retains the supreme power. Despite these limitations, Locke acknowledges that the government may become corrupt. Should the government lose trust and consent of the majority, it loses legitimacy, and therefore no longer has the right to have authority. [21] Locke mentions that if the government creates policies contrary to the law of nature, or ineffectively defends its citizen’s property, the citizens have the right to dispose of the government, violently if necessary. In this way Locke proposes a morally justifiable cause for rebellion.[22]
There are many ideas that John Locke and the Levellers share, but they differ on a few issues. Both Locke and the Levellers form the basis of their ideas on God. The natural rights of life that Locke describes are natural because they are God-given. Those who violate these rights violate God’s word, and thus need to be punished. Both Locke and the Levellers describe the basic rights of humans similarly. Locke describes basic human rights in the state of nature as the right to life, liberty of action, and the right to property, and attempts to prove these rights systematically.While the Levellers do not try to prove their ideas as correct, most of the human rights they protect in the Agreement are compatible with those of Locke.One of the few differences in human rights involves capital punishment.[23] The Levellers believe a man should not be deprived of his life except in cases of murder and treason, compared to Locke who believed in capital punishment for burglars.In addition, while Locke believes men have God given natural rights to private property, the Levellers believe God’s law does not necessarily grant one private property but rather is indifferent on the matter.[24]Locke’s limitations on government also differ slightly because the Levellers wrote to a specific person during a certain circumstance, while Locke wrote his book aimed at nobody specifically, in an attempt not to anger the government of England. The Levellers addressed many of their demands because of laws the King had created in the past. Thus, the limitations on the representative body are much more specific in Leveller works than in John Locke’s.Locke’s only specific limits are that only the legislature can create laws, all men must be held to the law equally, and individual’s private property cannot be taxed without consent. The Levellers’ restrictions are much more specific, dealing with the protection of individual rights involving religion, taxes, and legal cases. While Locke never mentions that legislature cannot pass laws infringing on specific issues, he does write that the legislature must exist for the good of the people. Most of the limitations expressed in the Leveller Agreement are inferred in Locke’s treatise, for otherwise the legislature would be acting against the common good.The only limitations that differ are the issues devoted to credentials of representatives and the role of monarchy. The Levellers declare that those serving in the representative body cannot be a member of the clergy or military, or hold any other political office.[25]The representative must be elected.Locke merely states that the legislature is made up of men representing the country, but does not mention restrictions on who may serve. In addition, Locke never states that the representatives are elected democratically, but rather are selected by natural right. This issue of monarchy also differs between the Agreement of the Free People and the Second Treatise.The Levellers banish any monarchy from having power over the people. While Locke does not believe in an absolute monarchy, he believes a constitutional monarchy is acceptable. Another difference in ideas is the difference on how to form a new government. According to Locke, should the government create laws contrary the common good, and subsequently lose trust of the majority, it can and should be dissolved and replaced with a new government.[26] The Levellers do not follow Locke’s criteria. The Levellers declared a State of Nature, and that the current government had acted against the people[27]. However, the Levellers were a small minority in England; they did not have approval of the majority.While they had the citizen’s best interests in mind, it is not the citizens who were demanding a change in government, it was a group of radicals, the Levellers. According to Locke, the Leveller’s government would not be legitimate because the majority of the people did not create or consent to the Agreement.
The ideas expressed by John Locke and the Levellers during the 17th century were new to the people of England. The Levellers, a radical political party, created an agreement outwardly condemning the king, by saying he has no power to rule over the people of England, and give full power to a representative body. John Locke, half a century later published Two Treatises of Government., expressing his views on the ideal government.While many of his ideas are similar to the ideas of the Levellers, the grounds on creating a new government are different, as Locke demands consent of the majority to overthrow while the Levellers were a small minority. It is worthwhile noting that Locke wrote obtusely and not of current events to avoid running a foul of the government. In contrast, the Levellers were outspokenly critical and tried to amass a following for their views. It is possible that many of the difference seen were a result of Locke trying not to anger the government, as opposed the Levellers provoking the ruling monarchy.
[1] Theodore Pease, The Leveller Movement (Washington D.C.: American Historical Association, 1916), 196.
[2]An Agreement of the Free People of England (London: May 1st, 1649), 319.
[3]An Agreement of the Free People of England, 321
[4]An Agreement of the Free People of England, 321
[5]An Agreement of the Free People of England, 322
[6]An Agreement of the Free People of England, 323
[7]An Agreement of the Free People of England, 324
[8]An Agreement of the Free People of England, 327
[9] Lloyd Thomas, Locke on Government (New York: Routledge Publishing, 2005), 20.
[10] John Locke, Two Treatises of Government,ed. Peter Laslett (Cambridge, UK: CambridgeUniversity Press, 2005), 269
