Conflict In John Locke's Second Treatise

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In his “Second Treatise,” Locke suggests that people in a community have an obligation to obey the laws of the community’s government if the people gave their consent. However, one might point out the apparent conflict that many people in a community never gave explicit consent to obey the government, but rather were just born into the community. In this paper, I will discuss Locke’s arguments to resolve this apparent conflict. Then I will argue that Locke’s attempt to resolve this conflict is not very successful. Lastly, I will point out the flaws in Locke’s argument and provide relevant examples. Locke writes about two social contracts which serve as the basis for why people are obligated to follow the government if they gave their consent. In the first social contract, social compact, the community reaches a …show more content…
After some period of time since the initial establishment of the government, the government is able to establish services and facilities for its people to use and people have the time to acquire and own property in its territory. According to Locke, as long as you use and enjoy such services and property within the government’s territory, you are tacitly consenting to following the government. This makes it very difficult for the community to ever have the opportunity to give explicit consent. Most of the community is probably utilizing services by the government or own property within the government’s territory, thus tacitly consenting to follow the laws of the government. If you are obligated to give tacit consent and continually follow the government, there is really no need to give explicit consent, such as voting, anymore to the government. This appears to conflict with how the government was initially established, which was via explicit consent from the

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