Thomas Hobbes and John Locke on a Liberal Right of Secession

Contemporary political theorists remain divided over (1) whether a right to secede exists, and (2) under what conditions such a right could be legitimately exercised. This study seeks to shed light on this complex issue by examining the works of two of the philosophical founders of liberalism: Thomas Hobbes and John Locke. I will argue that while neither Hobbes nor Locke discussed secession directly in terms of the categories political theorists use today, we can discern important elements of their political teaching that contribute toward the formulation of two distinct forms of a secession right. In Hobbes’ preservationist and Locke’s institutionalist argument, we find a distinctively liberal conception of a secession right that can help us frame the parameters of our thinking about secession in the twenty-first century.