A cornerstone of Western political philosophy, Locke’s Second Treatise on Civil Government is an essay written by English philosopher John Locke and published in 1690. Subtitled An Essay Concerning the True Original Extent and End of Civil Government, the essay was published in support of the Glorious Revolution of 1688. The concept of the modern liberal-democratic state is rooted in the work. It serves as a counterargument to Thomas Hobbes’s pro-absolutist government Leviathan (1651) and helped to inspire the Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution.

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