John Locke and Trust in Government

Abstract

The chapter begins with a discussion of the political philosophy of Locke, who claimed that all government is, or at least should be, based on trust. Locke’s theory originated in response to the policies of the governments of Charles II and James II, which Locke claimed violated the trust that the people had placed in the executive and the legislature. Locke’s argument provided a foundation for the opposition of the Commonwealthmen to the establishment Whig ministries of the early eighteenth century and colonial American opposition to the British government in the 1760s and 1770s. The concluding section in this chapter deals with efforts to promote mutual trust between the federal government and the states in drafting the United States Constitution in 1787 and the Bill of Rights in 1789.