John Locke's Two Treatises Of Government

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Throughout the world, America is known for its incredible democracy and unique system of government. Our representative democracy has inspired many other countries to follow suit, creating a safer and less corrupt world than the one our ancestors lived in. However, not many people know that our government was actually heavily influenced by England and its government. Back in the year 1215, English nobility forced King John to sign a document created to protect the rights of the upper class, called the Magna Carta. It resulted in all Englishmen getting a couple protected rights. This sounds small, but keep in mind that this was something that no other European kingdom had ever done. The English Bill of Rights is another document that English monarchs were forced to sign, and another opportunity for England to limit the power of the king and give it to Parliament. Many rights were protected because of it, such as no taxation without approval from the representatives within Parliament, right to a fair trial by a jury of their peers, no cruel or unusual punishment, taking away the king or queen's ability to abolish Parliamentary laws, and the right …show more content…

John Locke, an Englishman who created many key philosophies that still exist in our government today, was one of the front-runners of this movement, saying in his work "Two Treatises of Government," "Whensoever therefore the legislative shall transgress this fundamental rule of society; and either by ambition, fear, folly or corruption, endeavour to grasp themselves, or put into the hands of any other, an absolute power over the lives, liberties, and estates of the people; by this breach of trust they forfeit the power the people had put into their hands...In these and the like cases, when the government is dissolved, the people are at liberty to provide for themselves, by erecting a new legislative, differing from the other, by the change of persons, or form, or both, as they shall find it most for their safety and

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