Locke Vs Hobbes Essay

The battle between Hobbes and Locke still continues today through their influence on governments and how they believed government should work. Hobbes believed in an absolute monarch where they were to demand obedience in order to maintain order. On the other hand, John Locke thought that a Democracy was a better form of government provided that they had the right information to make. This form of government allows the people to keep their natural rights rather than giving them up in exchange for protection by the monarch. As a result of their views on human nature and what form government should take, it is easy to see why Lockean government is more powerful than Hobbesian by looking at past governments in history as well as logically. To
Locke, as a Christian, believed that God grants us with unalienable rights that, “no one ought to harm another in his Life, Health, Liberty, or Possessions” (Chapter V of Property). Under Locke’s form of government one’s rights are protected most famously written in the Declaration of Independence. Hobbes however did not think that the government had any obligation to protect the rights of its people and “To this war of every man against every man, this also is consequent; that nothing can be unjust. The notions of right and wrong, justice and injustice, have there no place. Where there is no common power, there is no law; where no law, no injustice” (Of the Natural Condition of Mankind as Concerning their Felicity and Misery). With more rights, people will enjoy more safety than simply the protection required by a Hobbesian Monarch. Therefore, these nations organized under the principles of Locke are more powerful by treating their subjects as human beings capable of making good decisions and worthy of natural rights. As it is more enjoyable to live in such a nation, in a time of war countrymen are more likely to willingly fight to protect the nation and rights given to