Two Treatises of Government

Examples of Two Treatises of Government in the following topics:

• The Limits of Democracy

  • Therefore, in encouraging the states to participate in a strong centralized government under a new constitution and replace the relatively weak Articles of Confederation, Madison argued in his paper "Federalist No. 10" that a special interest may take control of a small area (such as a state), but could not easily take over a large nation.
  • Without the Convention's proposed central government, the framers feared that the United States under the Articles of Confederation would fail to keep the country intact.
  • Several ideas in the Constitution were new, associated with the combination of consolidated government, along with federal relationships with constituent states.
  • Locke advanced the principle of consent of the governed in his Two Treatises of Government: essentially, government's duty in a social contract with the sovereign people was to serve them by protecting their rights to life, liberty, and property.
  • In his book The Spirit of the Laws, he argued for the separation of state powers into the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of government.

• The Bill of Rights

  • The Bill of Rights is a series of limitations on the power of the U.S. government, protecting the natural rights of liberty and property.
  • To some degree, the Bill of Rights incorporated the ideas of John Locke, who argued in his 1689 work, Two Treatises of Government, that civil society was created for the protection of property .
  • The two versions went to the Joint Committee and the Senate's version became the one adopted by joint resolution of Congress on September 25, 1789, to be forwarded to the states on September 28.
  • The Bill of Rights plays a key role in American law and government, and remains a vital symbol of the freedoms and culture of the nation.
  • Author of Two Treatises of Government (1689) which argued that civil society was created for the protection of property.

• Liberty

  • Liberty, the ability of individuals to have control over their lives, is a central aspect of modern political philosophy.
  • The thinkers of the Enlightenment reasoned that law governed both heavenly and human affairs, and that law gave the king his power, rather than the king's power giving force to law.
  • On Liberty was the first work to recognize the difference between liberty as the freedom to act and liberty as the absence of coercion.In his book, Two Concepts of Liberty, the British social and political theorist Isaiah Berlin formally framed the differences between these two perspectives as the distinction between two opposite concepts of liberty: positive liberty and negative liberty.
  • The founders of the United States were heavily influenced by the writings of John Locke, who had declared in Two Treatises of Government that under natural law, all people have the right to life, liberty, and estate.
  • In addition, under the social contract, the people could instigate a revolution against the government when it acted against the interests of citizens, and replace it with one that would serve the interests of citizens.

• The Constitution

  • Locke advanced the principle of consent of the governed in his Two Treatises of Government.
  • An amendment can be proposed one of two ways.
  • Both ways have two steps.
  • Or it can be on demand of two-thirds of the state legislatures.
  • Constitution, the Taxing and Spending clause gives the federal government of the United States its power of taxation.

• The American Enlightenment

  • In the decades before the American Revolution in 1776, the intellectual and political leaders of the colonies studied history intently, looking for guides or models for good—and bad—government.
  • Locke's Two Treatises of Government (1691) challenged the principle that hierarchical, monarchical systems of government originated from God's divine law.
  • Common Sense called for independence and challenged the largely accepted notion that a good government employed a balance of monarchy, aristocracy, and democracy.
  • Instead, Paine called for a republican system of government, with no king or aristocracy.
  • ...to secure these rights [life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness] governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute a new government.

• John Locke

  • Two Treatises of Government, Locke's most important and influential work on political theory, was first published anonymously in 1689.
  • It is divided into the First Treatise and the Second Treatise.
  • The Second Treatise outlines a theory of civil society.
  • He goes on to explain the hypothetical rise of property and civilization, in the process explaining that the only legitimate governments are those that have the consent of the people.
  • Therefore, any government that rules without the consent of the people can, in theory, be overthrown.

• Baron de Montesquieu

  • The Spirit of the Laws is a treatise on political theory first published anonymously by Montesquieu in 1748.
  • In this political treatise, Montesquieu pleaded in favor of a constitutional system of government and the separation of powers, the ending of slavery, the preservation of civil liberties and the law, and the idea that political institutions ought to reflect the social and geographical aspects of each community.
  • He distinguishes this view of liberty from two other, misleading views of political liberty.
  • Generally speaking, establishing political liberty requires two things: the separation of the powers of government and the appropriate framing of civil and criminal laws so as to ensure personal security.
  • Building on and revising a discussion in John Locke's Second Treatise of Government, Montesquieu argues that the executive, legislative, and judicial functions of government (the so-called tripartite system) should be assigned to different bodies, so that attempts by one branch of government to infringe on political liberty might be restrained by the other branches (checks and balances).

• Natural Rights

  • During the Enlightenment, the concept of natural laws was used to challenge the divine right of kings and became an alternative justification for the establishment of a social contract, positive law, and government – and thus legal rights – in the form of classical republicanism (built around concepts such as civil society, civic virtue and mixed government).
  • The idea of natural rights is also closely related to that of human rights: some acknowledge no difference between the two, while others choose to keep the terms separate to eliminate association with some features traditionally associated with natural rights. 
  • Natural rights, in particular, are considered beyond the authority of any government or international body to dismiss.
  • The most famous natural right formulation comes from John Locke in his Second Treatise, when he introduces the state of nature.
  • The most famous natural right formulation comes from John Locke in his Second Treatise.

• The Song Dynasty

  • The dynasty is divided into two distinct periods, Northern and Southern.
  • The Song was the first government in world history to issue banknotes or paper money, as well as the first Chinese government to establish a permanent standing navy.
  • Enormous encyclopedic volumes were compiled, such as works of historiography and dozens of treatises on technical subjects.
  • Although an early form of the local geographic gazetteer existed in China since the 1st century, the matured form known as "treatise on a place", or fangzhi, replaced the old "map guide", or tujing, during the Song Dynasty.
  • Although the Neo-Confucianists were critical of Taoism and Buddhism, the two did have an influence on the philosophy, and the Neo-Confucianists borrowed terms and concepts from both.

• Defining Accounting

  • It included a 27-page treatise on bookkeeping, "Particularis de Computis et Scripturis" (Latin: "Details of Calculation and Recording").
  • It represents the first known printed treatise on bookkeeping; and it is widely believed to be the forerunner of modern bookkeeping practice.
  • Even though Pacioli's treatise exhibits almost no originality, it is generally considered as an important work, mainly because it enjoyed a wide circulation, was written in the vernacular Italian language, and was a printed book.
  • Accounting that provides information to people outside the business entity is called financial accounting and provides information to both current and potential shareholders, creditors such as banks or vendors, financial analysts, economists, and government agencies.
  • The body of rules that governs financial accounting in a given jurisdiction is called Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, or GAAP.