Question

Read the excerpt from a book written by Enlightenment philosopher John Locke. Briefly summarize the passage and explain the impact these ideas had on countries around the world during the 18th and 19th centuries. Give specific examples of these ideas' impact in two different parts of the world.
"For no government can have a right to obedience from a people who have not freely consented to it; which they can never be supposed to do, till either they are put in a full state of liberty to choose their government and governors, or at least till they have such standing laws, to which they have by themselves or their representatives given their free consent, and also till they are allowed their due property, which is so to be proprietors of what they have, that no body can take away any part of it without their own consent, without which, men under any government are not in the state of freemen, but are direct slaves under the force of war."

Answer 1

John Locke was arguing the idea of a "social contract."  According to his view, a government's power to govern comes from the consent of the people themselves -- those who are to be governed.  This was a change from the previous ideas of "divine right monarchy" -- that a king ruled because God appointed him to be the ruler.  Locke repudiated the views of divine right monarchy in his First Treatise on Civil Government.  In his Second Treatise on Civil Government (from which your excerpt is quoted), Locke argued for the rights of the people to create their own governments according to their own desires and for the sake of protecting their own life, liberty, and property.

Specific examples of where Locke's ideas had impact:  

The American founding fathers read Locke (as well as other Enlightenment writers).  The American Revolution (1775-1783) was inspired by ideas such as those of Locke.

Also the French Revolution (1789-1799) took cues from the political philosophy of John Locke, overthrowing the unwanted monarchy of Louis XVI.