Dissent as political legitimacy A discussion of the relation between power and freedom in Two Treatises of Government

This paper argues that Locke develops a new conceptualization of both power and freedom in the Two Treatises of Government. Unlike his predecessors, Locke claims that freedom is a necessary rather than a conditional property of men. Therefore, power must be understood as a relationship of consent between radically free actors. However, instead of critically examining power structures in society, Locke uses this new definition as a tool of political justification. Locke emphasises the power of people to rebel against their conditions in order to legitimise the authority of states in which the people do not revolt. Although the individual is a theoretically important player, they are reduced to cogs in the political machine. The right to revolt, this paper will argue, is but a rhetorically strategic device to validate the power of the state.