Liberty, Governance and Resistance

John Locke is widely perceived as a foundational figure within the liberal tradition. This book investigates the competing discourses that inform Locke’s political philosophy, each underwritten by a distinct purpose, not all of which result in philosophical outcomes consistent with what we today understand as “liberal” ideals.

Locke himself was unaware that he belonged to a “liberal” tradition. Traditions only acquire meaning in retrospect. But many have perceived the development of Locke’s political philosophy as involving a smooth evolution from “authoritarian” origins to “liberal” conclusions, beginning with Locke’s Two Tracts on Government (1660–62) and culminating in his later political works, the Two Treatises of Government (1689) and A Letter Concerning Toleration (1689). This book advances an interpretation of this development which reveals how, from the time of his earliest writings, Locke sought to advance competing discourses within his political philosophy, each reflecting a different purpose, with the result that this “evolution” was not as smooth as often supposed. Indeed, many of Locke’s earlier commitments and purposes remained in his later political writings. The result is a much more complex and variegated understanding of Locke’s political philosophy than hitherto supposed within the Locke literature.

Liberty, Governance and Resistance will be of interest to students and researchers studying Locke, liberalism, and the history of ideas.

John William Tate is a Senior Lecturer in Politics and International Relations at the University of Newcastle, Australia. His primary research interests are in the areas of political philosophy and history of political thought. In particular, he is interested in issues of freedom of speech, freedom of religion and toleration. He has published in these areas in journals such as the American Journal of Political Science, Political Theory, Political Studies, European Journal of Political Theory, Philosophy and Social Criticism, Journal of Religion, Telos, Journal of European Studies, Australian Journal of Political Science, Australian Journal of Politics and History, and Journal of Australian Studies. He is also engaged in an extended study of the political thought of the late seventeenth-century English philosopher, John Locke. Locke is an important foundational source within the liberal tradition, not least in regard to its concern with freedom of religion and toleration. John Tate has published two monographs on John Locke with Routledge. These are Liberty, Toleration and Equality: John Locke, Jonas Proast and the Letters Concerning Toleration (2016) and Liberty, Governance and Resistance: Competing Discourses in John Locke’s Political Philosophy (2024).