John locke constitutional democracy
A constitutional democracy is a government in which the people vote for representatives or laws, and in which the laws are authorized and constrained by a constitution. Such a system is also referred to as “liberal democracy.” The constitution is usually a written document, although in the case of the UK, it is a set of documents that collectively form constitutional rules.
The constitution of a country is its supreme law. In a constitutional democracy, the constitution’s authority comes from the people, who establish the highest level of rules. Indeed, the preamble of the US Constitution begins with these words: “We the People of the United States.”
Constitutional democracy relates to global justice in two ways. First, justice requires a uniform rule of law, in contrast to the arbitrary whims of powerful individuals. Secondly, democracy needs constitutional limits in order to prevent the tyranny of the democratic majority. In order for justice to be truly global, there needs to be a...
Locke’s Political Philosophy
1. Natural Law and Natural Rights
Perhaps the most central concept in Locke’s political philosophy is his theory of natural law and natural rights. The natural law concept existed long before Locke as a way of expressing the idea that there were certain moral truths that applied to all people, regardless of the particular place where they lived or the agreements they had made. The most important early contrast was between laws that were by nature, and thus generally applicable, and those that were conventional and operated only in those places where the particular convention had been established. This distinction is sometimes formulated as the difference between natural law and positive law.
Natural law is also distinct from divine law in that the latter, in the Christian tradition, normally referred to those laws that God had directly revealed through prophets and other inspired writers. Natural law can be discovered by reason alone and applies to all people, while divine law can be discovered only through God’s special revelation and applies only to those to whom it is revealed and whom God specifically indicates are to be bound. Thus some seventeenth-century commentators, Locke included, held that not all of the 10 commandments, much less the rest of the Old Testament law, were binding on all people. The 10 commandments begin “Hear O Israel” and thus are only binding on the people to whom they were addressed (Works 6:37). (Spelling and formatting are modernized in quotations from Locke in this entry). As we will see below, even though Locke thought natural law could be known apart from special revelation, he saw no contradiction in God playing a part in the argument, so long as the relevant aspects of God’s character could be discovered by reason alone. In Locke’s theory, divine law and natural law are consistent and can overlap in content, but they are not coextensive. Thus there is .A Critique of Locke's Prerogative of Constitutional Democracy
Abstract
The fundamental problem associated with Locke's constitutional theory is that his political theory envisaged the complexities of our contemporary times. For Locke, the people are the source of political power. Moral evaluation is grounded in political power. Political power reflects the manifestation of the state with its laws and government. The chief reason for Locke's constitutional democracy is epitomized in political judgments, such as “stability”, “state”, “law”, “government”, “power”, “authority”, “justice”, “right”, “freedom”, and “equality”. For Locke, the fundamental questions of political morality are questions about what men ought to do in relation to the right ordering and functioning of political power, society and government. Locke's prerogative of constitutional democracy is factual, empirical and pragmatic. His prerogative of constitutional democracy reflects the basic factual questions about human nature and the causal determinants of society and government. Locke’s prerogative of constitutional democracy reflects the need for consent, organic or corporate society. The need for consent reflects the source for political power. This paper adopts the analytical framework. This paper also needs an expository method in addition to the analytic framework in unraveling Locke's democratic theory. Locke's conceptualization of constitutional democracy represents the “cooperative existence of civil society”. Freedom is the kernel of Locke's political philosophy. Locke's rationalization of civil society is the preservation of private property. Locke's contention on constitutional democracy is borne out of the need to avoid violence and war in the state. Locke's emphasis on avoiding war is aimed at establishing a commonwealth based on consent. Locke's liberal conviction of constitutional democracy serves as a philosophical base for the moral conviction of private property and revolution