Common Sense

Paine sees government as inherently bad, and does not see government as divinely ordained or otherwise intrinsically valuable. According to Paine, governments can only be measured by their effectiveness, as measured by their ability to improve society without being tyrannical. Paine does not believe that anyone has a right to govern others, which means he thinks that the king should no longer rule the colonies. Paine's view of government makes the revolutionary movement much more palatable by rejecting the presumption that the king has some legitimate and preexisting authority over the colonies. He says the only question that really matters is whether the colonists' living conditions would be better if they governed themselves, rather than being governed by the Crown.

In Paine's day, many people could not fathom the possibility of a group of colonies successfully taking on the world's strongest empire, but Paine tries to show that America's small size is not a disadvantage. To do this, Paine adopts a twofold strategy. First, Paine argues that the colonies are not actually that small, and lays out in detail how the colonies could build a Navy equivalent to the feared British Navy. Second, Paine argues that to the extent that the colonies are small, it is an advantage rather than a liability, as a smaller group of colonies will be more unified in their ts struggle for freedom.

By demonstrating that a separation between the American colonies and the British Empire was inevitable, Paine hopes to make people more accustomed to the impossible idea of a free America. If Paine can convince his audience that America must eventually separate, the feasibility of the idea is no longer in doubt, and the colonists will instead have to consider when the separation will occur. Paine substantiates his claim with references to the present state of affairs, which he takes as evidence that the relationship between America and Britain cannot continue unchanged.