GUIDE TO THE PHILOSOPHY 1938 - 1947.pdf - Rare Books at ...

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POLITICS
enforced. Formulation and interpretation are the task
of the legislature; enforcement of the executive. But while
the need for formulation is intermittent and arises only
on particular occasions, the need for enforcement is permanent
Hence the* body of representative legislators
should sit only occasionally and, since the task of formula-
tion is quickly accomplished, for short periods, while the
executive will be permanently in office. Locke regarded
the separation of die legislature from the executive as one
of the greatest safeguards against tyranny. If those who
make the laws are the same as those who are responsible
for their enforcement, there will, he says, always be a
danger that the legislators "may exempt themselves
from obedience to the laws they make and suit the law,
both in its making and its execution, to their own private
wish, and thereby come to have a distinct interest from
the rest of the community, contrary to the end of society
and .
government
Provided that the law of nature is properly interpreted,
provided, that is to say, that the government does in fact
the law
carry out the will of those who elect it to interpret
of nature for them, it is the duty of the people to obey
the laws and to co-operate in the running of the State.
So soon, however, as a government infringes or fails to
provide for the exercise of the individual's rights as prescribed
by the law of nature, there is a right of rebellion.
Rebellion, however, is only justified,
if the majority
desire it; or, to put the point in another way, it is only
justified when the government becomes unrepresentative^
Against a government that represents and carries out the
wishes of the majority, there is no right of rebellion. The
only weapon which a minority is entitled to use is persuasion
with die object of bringing the majority round to its way
of thinking. From this discussion of the rights of majorities
and minorities in a State, ethical conceptions are again
rigidly excluded. The question whether the majority
is right is never discussed; it is sufficient for Locke that it
is a majority.