To understand classic liberalism we must focus on Locke's idea of political power and his political model as well as his economic model. Locke defines political power as " a right of making laws with penalties of Death, and consequently all less penalties, for regulating and preserving property, and of employing the force of the community, in the execution of such laws, and in the defense of the common-wealth from foreign injury, and all this only for the Publick Good"(Wooten, #2). This idea of thought explains Locke's main idea in the Second Treatise of Government, that everything is best for the individual rather than for the community. .

             Locke's idea of politics starts off with a basis of men and freedom suggested to us in the law of nature. The buffer between man and brutes is the law of nature, which is a law of reason. .

             "Our faculty of reason is fitted to discover what that law says, what it measures and standards of conduct are (Yolton, 65). Men rise above these beasts only because of that faculty. It is through the law of nature, reason, and humanity that each one of us makes with " all the rest of Mankind.one community, makes up one society distinct from all other creatures" (1.#128). .

             So it is people in a community that come together for the strength of the individual. Locke states that man must reside in the community to reap the benefits. If a man opposes this, then he faces the dilemma of giving up power for safety. In leaving the community of mankind in order to form smaller associates of civil societies, natural man gives up the power of preserving himself and mankind, giving that power to the civil society "to be regulated by laws made by society"(1.#129). In the same way, the move into civil society requires each man to give up his right to punish or kill as an individual. Criminals in this society are to be brought forth to the community's authority. Locke states that in leaving the great community of mankind and joining a civil society, we do not cease to be men, or even cease to be members of mankind (Yolton, 65).