John Locke “Two Treatises on Civil Government” (1689) H-SS Describe the Enlightenment and the rise of democratic ideas as the context in which the nation was founded

Treatises on Civil Government reflect the ideology of the Glorious Revolution. Forces of Parliament had won and they selected William & Mary as their new monarchs, as long as they lived by the Magna Carta and the Bill of Rights. Locke was on the winning side unlike Hobbes

Human Nature Much brighter than Hobbes Good Moral Honest Reasonable

Humans in Nature Humans born with natural rights to: Life Liberty Property - Dec. of Independence changed to the “Pursuit of Happiness”…… Property = Happiness Rights came from God or nature not the gov’t, so gov’t can not take them away, which makes them inalienable

Social Contract Gov’t gets its authority to rule from the people. Gov’t exists to protect your natural rights (life, liberty, and property). If it fails the people have a Right to Revolution

Our country was founded on the idea that if our government fails to protect our rights we have the right to get rid of it or change it to make it better Right to Revolution-people have the right or duty to rebel if gov’t fails to protect their rights --This is the driving force of our Political system-- It can happen two ways:

Ballots - Reform peaceful change of government citizens recognize problem and correct w/o changing gov’t

Bullets - war/riots usually when system fails to react to problems or when gov’t becomes unjust During Revolutionary War period people tried to peacefully change system when it failed they started the war

Declaration of Independence Written by Thomas Jefferson. It is based on John Locke’s philosophies as written in “Two Treatises on Civil Government” It described unalienable natural rights, social contract, and the right to revolution It was an expression of what the colonists believed were their rights as English subjects

Declaration of Independence Unalienable natural rights-cannot be taken away Social contract-gov’t gets authority to rule from the people Right to revolution-if gov’t fails to protect natural rights then the people have the right to change or replace the gov’t

Declaration of Independence Written by Thomas Jefferson based on ideas Of John Locke