Second Treatise of Government - 3 - Legislative and Executive Power
Chapters 10 - 14
Quote
... the first and fundamental positive Law of all Commonwealths, is the establishing of the Legislative Power; as the first and fundamental natural Law, which is to govern even the Legislative it self, is the preservation of the Society, and every person in it.
Notes
🔥 The legislature cannot have more power than what is given within the state of nature. And it must be directed towards the public good of society.
🔥 There must be a process for establishing laws that isn't merely arbitrary, or done at the whim of the rulers. Or else they'll abuse their power. A government cannot take away people's property, since protecting property is their main purpose. And they can't raise taxes without the people's consent.
🔥 The legislative power which makes the laws should be separate from the executive power, which executes the laws, in order to limit the powers of each. Everyone in the commonwealth must be subject to the same laws, including those in the legislative and executive offices.
🔥 The commonwealth as a whole can be thought of as one body, and that body is still in the state of nature with respect to anyone, or any state, outside of itself. So there is also the power of war and peace against those outside of that body, which Locke calls the Federative power. The Executive and Federative power can be held by the same person(s). One is enforcing the law within the state, the other without.
🔥 The people ultimately have supreme power in the commonwealth because they have the power to remove or replace people in the Legislative.
🔥 Otherwise, the legislative is the supreme power. Since they make the laws, everything else must be subordinate to them. The executive, then, is subordinate to the legislative.
🔥 There must also be a way to update how many representatives come from which places, since things change and some cities can grow large while others shrink. There has to be a system in place when that happens to change how many representatives come from each city.
🔥 Sometimes a case happens which isn't covered by a law yet, or an exception to the law is necessary to best preserve and protect the public good. These are cases where the executive must use their discretion, or what Locke calls their prerogative.
🔥 This prerogative power needs to be limited and regulated. Or else it can be used to broadly.
🔥 Sometimes a wise and popular ruler can be granted a lot of prerogative because people trust him. This sets a precedent for that prerogative power to continue on to the next guy. But this can be a problem when the next guy comes in and abuses that power which then has to be pulled back.
🔥 "Prerogative is nothing but the Power of doing public Good without a rule."
🔥 What happens if these powers are abused and used to harm the people? Then they have an "appeal to Heaven", says Locke, since there is no other recourse. (An appeal to Heaven means they can revolt?...)