The Declaration of Independence and John Locke's Political Views

Running head: THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE
THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE
There is an inextricable link vis-à-vis the Declaration of Independence of 1776, and the
political views of John Locke as expressed in his Social Contract Theory and in his views on
Natural Law and Political Theory, with regard to the legitimacy of a government and its
accountability to the governed (Locke, 1988). The assertion of the rights of the American
citizens to be free of the domination of the Colonial Government and take the helm of affairs by
themselves, and John Locke considering the right to acquire property as a fundamental right of
the people of England, as a matter of right which has been endowed by the Almighty God is
what accounts for the basic and the fundamental connection between the philosopher and the
document (Jefferson, 2014).
Both the thinker and the document deals with the aspect of the reorganization of the
nation state. Locke had propounded for the reorganization of a Laissez Faire state which shall not
be imposing any restriction on the profit maximization pursuit of the emerging bourgeoisies. On
the other hand it was a panel of five members, Jefferson, Franklin, Adams, Sherman and
Livingston who had articulated their interest of leading the affairs of the American Nation
without the domination of Britain. America was a colony and by virtue of it she had to face quite
a lot of economic exploitation by Britain, which was why the American Declaration of
Independence was proclaimed in 1776 (Jefferson, 2014).
It was in 1689 when John Locke had composed the Social Contract Theory, incorporating
the element of Natural Law, exemplifying his political theory. At that point of time in England,
the middle class, or the mercantilist class was rising and it was also the time period when the
state of economy was gradually undergoing a transformation. The economy was undergoing a
paradigmatic shift from pastoral mode of production to a capitalistic mode of production.
Renaissance had already opened up avenues for conducting trade by the discovery of new lands