Political Science · Western Political Thought
UGC NET January 2017 Political Science
Who among the following defined civil power as 'the right of making laws with penalties for the regulating and preserving of property, and of employing the force of the community in the execution of such laws, all this only for the public good'?
AMachiavelli
BThomas Hobbes
CJohn Locke ✓ Correct
DRousseau
Correct answer: (C) John Locke — The definition of civil power quoted here is John Locke's, from his Second Treatise of Government.
Explanation
★The definition of civil power quoted here is John Locke's, from his Second Treatise of Government.
★Locke defines political power as the right to make laws with penalties for regulating and preserving property.
★That power also includes employing the community's force to execute the laws and defend the commonwealth.
★Crucially, he adds that all this is only for the public good, marking the limited and trust-based nature of authority.
★This trusteeship contrasts with Hobbes's absolute sovereign and Machiavelli's amoral statecraft.
★The definition opens the Second Treatise and frames Locke's whole theory of limited, consensual government.
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