Two Treatises of Government by {author}: summary and why it matters
John Locke's argument that government exists by consent to protect life, liberty and property, and may be resisted when it betrays that trust.
Also known as Second Treatise of Government, Of Civil Government
The book
| Author | John Locke |
|---|---|
| First published | 1689 |
| First publisher | Awnsham Churchill |
| Kind of book | Political philosophy |
What it argues
The First Treatise is a rebuttal of Robert Filmer's claim that kings rule by a divine, patriarchal right. The Second, the part most people mean when they cite Locke, builds a positive account. Men in a state of nature are free and equal under a law of nature that forbids harming another's life, health, liberty or possessions. They leave that state because there is no neutral judge to settle disputes.
Government is created by consent to be that judge. Its powers are limited to protecting the rights that made it necessary, it must rule by known laws rather than whim, and the legislative power is held in trust. Property gets special attention: a person owns his labor, and mixing labor with unowned nature makes a rightful claim, within limits set by sufficiency and spoilage.
When rulers invade those rights systematically, the people keep the right to remove them. Locke calls that an appeal to heaven, and it is the idea the American founders reached for in 1776.
Why it matters
Locke supplied much of the moral framework of the American founding. The Declaration's language of unalienable rights and of government resting on the consent of the governed is recognizably his, and later debates about limited government, due process and property trace back to this text.
For conservatives and classical liberals the book is also a standard against which to measure expansive claims for state power: if government is a trust created to secure rights, then every new function has to be justified against that purpose.
About the author
John Locke (1632-1704) was an English physician, philosopher and political adviser who spent years in exile in the Netherlands because of his ties to the Whig opposition. The Two Treatises appeared anonymously in 1689, soon after the Glorious Revolution, though most scholars think much of the text was written earlier, in the period of the exclusion crisis. Locke did not acknowledge authorship publicly until his will.
Who should read it
Students of the founding, readers of the Declaration and anyone who wants the source of the idea that rights come before government. The Second Treatise is short and can be read on its own, though the First Treatise explains why Locke bothered to build the case.
Sources
Profile last reviewed November 8, 2026