Without this unanimous consent to government as holder of executive power, men who attempt to establish absolute power will throw society into a state of war(745). The importance of freedom and security to man is the reason he gives consent to the government. He then protects himself from any one partial body from getting power over him. He can appeal to a higher authority in his community once the consent of the people sets up a judiciary(746). As Locke develops his theory of consent, he addresses the issue of liberty and states that in giving consent, men do give up their “natural liberty,” which involves being free from the will of any man and living by the law of nature. However, in the social contract we exchange this natural liberty for “freedom of men under government,” in which we have a natural, standing rule to live by, common to everyone, made by the legislative(747). With consent to government, men still have the liberty to follow their own will in matters where the law does not dictate otherwise. Therefore, men do not have to suffer enslavement to political institutions. For Locke, this justifies consent to government and ordered society.Locke incorporates his views on money into his consent theory, for he feels that men have agreed tacitly, with the invention of money, to put a value on property and establish rights to it(751). The consent of men to place a value on money has allowed men to support themselves with property and labor and also “increase[s] the common stock of mankind”(751). Consent makes industry and the accumulation of the wealth of society possible and Locke considers this a positive achievement. Involved deeply in the theory of consent is Locke’s interpretation of political obligation. Locke views government as essential to the evolution of a civil society in which the inconveniences of the state of nature are rejected while the safety and security m...
