Individual Consents To A Society example essay topic

Karl Marx, a German author, and John Locke, a British educator, are both very well known philosophers. Both have written essays on the ideal government: Marx created Marxism and Locke defined democracy. Both forms of government have been tried throughout the course of time. Both, however, came from two different types of men, from two different periods in history, and in reaction to two different types of government.

Though Marx and Locke would have agreed that power would be given to the people in the ideal government, when put into practice, their theories fall apart. Both philosophies, Marxism and Democracy, have evolved through time. While it is true that Marx and Locke wanted the people to have the power in the ideal government, it is also true that, based on their theories, that this is not possible. Democracy, Lockes theoretical government, is a system of placing power with the government, but, at the same time, making sure that power is not abused. The democratic government is split into three parts, the Legislative branch, for making laws, the Executive branch, for enforcing the laws, and the Judicial branch, for judging those who have broken the law. The government is divided in this way to ensure a system of checks and balances and to ensure that there will not be one single supreme power making all decisions.

While there is a structure of checks and balances, as Locke wanted, the people do not have the direct control of the country, as is Democracy. Locke also had specialized roles for both the government and the people. He thought that the government should exist only to keep the country organized, to protect the natural rights of the people, including life and liberty, and to safeguard the property of the people. The role of the people according to Locke was simply that they labor and produce capital. People should also trust their government on that basis that government should be established only to serve peoples interests. Because Locke gave the people the right to vote in democracy, he also gave them the power to control the government.

The working class is empowered because they all have equal say in government. When they vote, their opinions drive the country in certain directions. The common people will always have the power because they will always outnumber the upper class. Locke also felt that we were born with certain unalienable rights, and if the government violated those rights, the duty of people was to revolt and to create new government. This, too, was also a major source of power for the people.

Locke attempts to devise an argument that will define the limits of political power while establishing the rights of resistance. Locke has many points that come together to create his argument. These are primarily based on the basic principles that natural equality when combined with legitimate authority will lead people and their property. This should lead out of a state of nature and into a better, stronger, and more stable society, unless it be to do justice on an offender, take away, or impair the life, or what tends to the preservation of the life, the liberty, health, limb, or goods of another (p. 9). In a more detailed account, Locke states the direct problems with the state of nature are that there are no standings laws, indifferent judges, or reliable executive powers. All these problems encompass one main issue.

This issue is that property, physical and material needs to be protected in a more secure way. The way to obtain this higher security is to move out of the state of nature and into a society. Locke first moves out of the state of nature and into society through the introduction of consent. Consent is the necessary condition that makes obedience legitimate. To explain what he means by consent he first explains how humans can give consent and why they can give consent. He states that the idea of consent of all is the origin of society.

He states, For when any number of men have, by the consent of every individual, made a community, they have thereby made that community one body, with a power to act as one body, which is only by the will and determination of the majority (p. 52). This clearly shows how crucial consent is to the membership of society, and not only consent, but the consent of every member in that society. Their joint consent then makes for a majority type of rule. He believes to be part of a society and to be obligated to follow the rules of that society an individual must first consent to being a part of that society. There are two different forms of consent. The first one is express consent while the second is tacit consent.

Express consent is explicit consent while tacit is a silent consent. Lockes main premises are that to be legitimate government must have the consent of all people in a society and preserve those individual properties. He concludes from these premises that if the government does not do anything that violates the original consent or attempt to deny a member of society property of any sort without consent then obedience will be legitimate. In return, if the government does violate the consent of the people or deny them of any property without consent then the people have the right to rebel, resume their original liberty, and establish a new legislative law. The conclusions do indeed follow from the premises. If the individual must consent to get into society once in it does follow that as long as what they consented to has not been abused or changed obedience will be legitimate.

Following, if an individual consents to a society then an arbitrary power takes it a pond themselves to change the ideas originally consented to, the society would in return have no obligation to obey a law they never agreed to in establishment. Capitalism is the separation of the economy and the state. It is a social system based upon private ownership of the means of production, which entails a completely uncontrolled and unregulated economy where all land is privately owned. Capitalism has been described as the a social harmony through the pursuit of self-interest. This is because those who promote capitalism, believe in that by leaving the state of the economy unregulated, and by each individual left in pursuit of his own self-interests, the economy will automatically adjust itself so that is runs with maximum efficiency.

Today in the United States, we live in a capitalist society (our economy is not purely capitalistic because it is not completely unregulated). Under this system, a large and growing section of the population survives based on the condition that it works for the owners of the means of production..