A theoretical and practical analysis of the philosophies of Karl Marx and John Locke
Karl Marx, a German author, and John Locke, a British educator, are both very well known philosophers. Both have written essays on the ideal government: Marx created Marxism and Locke defined democracy. Both forms of government have been tried throughout the course of time. Both, however, came from two different types of men, from two different time periods in history, and in reaction to two different types of government. Though Marx and Locke would have agreed that power would be given to the people in the ideal government, when put into practice, their theories fall apart. Marxism was a classless form of government. Actually, there was no government in Marxism, the people ruled themselves. In theory, people were all at a common level; the only person that was to be higher than others was an administrator, whose only role was to make sure that the will of the people was carried out. It became the job of the people to regulate the country, to maintain equality and make sure that all of the capital that was produced was dispersed evenly among all of the people: "The distinguishing feature of communism is not the abolition of property generally, but the abolition of bourgeois property. But modern bourgeois private propert
l, they will use the government to do evil things. This is why a constitution exists: to balance power; the judicial system ultimately decides on actions in our country, not the people. Thus, even though the Marxist working class and the democratic lower class have power in theory, in practice, it is shown that neither Marxism nor Democracy recognize inalienable rights of the people, protect those rights, or, ultimately, give power to the people. Swindell, Linda K. Summary of Locke. 10/29/1997 Democracy, Locke's theoretical government, is a system of placing power with the government, but, at the same time, making sure that power is not abused. The democratic government is split into three parts, the Legislative branch, for making laws, the Executive branch, for enforcing the laws, and the Judicial branch, for judging those who have broken the law. The government is divided in this way to ensure a system of checks and balances and also to ensure that there not be one single supreme power making all decisions. Locke also had specialized roles for both the government and the people. He thought that the government should exist only to keep the country organized, to protect the natural rights of the people, including life and liberty, and to safeguard the property of the people. The role of the people according to Locke was simply that they labor and produce capital. Ross, Kelley L. Machiavelli and the Moral Dilemma of Statecraft. 2000 "In all Cases...the supreme Court shall have original Jurisdiction. In all the other Cases before mentioned, the supreme Court shall have appellate Jurisdiction, both as to Law and Fact, with such Exceptions, and under such Regulations as the Congress shall make." ( NARA ) Remnants of Locke's theories are found in several governments, though the same cannot be said for Marxism. Even the Declaration of Independence has major influences from Locke's work:
Some common words found in the essay are:
Marx Locke, Ross Marxism, Democracy Locke's, God Locke, Fidel Castro, Congress NARA, Marxism Democracy, Declaration Independence, Landry Marx, God Democracy, form government, forms government, marxism democracy, true democracy, government marx, government marxism, government people, ideal government, marx locke, rights people, government marx locke, humans inherently evil, duty people revolt, national archives records, constitutionally limited republic,
Approximate Word count = 2178
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page double spaced)
|
