Question

Imagine you are preparing a speech on social contract theory for your government class. As part of your speech, you need to focus on the idea that people have the authority to overthrow a government that has become tyrannical. Which Enlightenment text would be good source material?

a. Hobbes’s Leviathan
b.Locke’s Second Treatise of Government
c.Montesquieu’s The Spirit of the Laws
d.Blackstone’s Commentaries on the Laws of England

Any help would be appreciated thanks:)



Machiavelli’s The Prince

Answer 1

It you needed to focus on the idea that people have the authority to overthrow a government that has become tyrannical, then you should choose "b. Locke’s Second Treatise of Government," since Locke's writing were a major inspiration for the Founding Fathers of the United States.