Hobbes and Locke: The Politics of Freedom and Obligation

Locke says that the entire and only reason for the state is to justly protect man's natural rights to life, liberty and property. If a ruler seeks absolute power acting as both judge and a party in disputes or repeatedly infringes upon mans three natural rights it puts them in a state of war with their subjects and therefore back into the state of nature and, according to Locke, it is now the mans right to resist or rebel against the ruler. There are, however, four conditions in which rebellion is justified by Locke which are mentioned by Von Leydon (1982).