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The Civil State In John Locke’s Political Philosophy: Its Relevance To Nigerian Democracy
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1.3. Scope of the Study
Taking cognizance of Locke’s vast
contribution and discussion in philosophy, this study is limited to his
teaching on the civil state, and its importance to the remedy of some of
the posing problems of democracy in the Nigerian State.
1.4. Methodology
The
method of the work is expository and evaluative. This means that
Locke’s Civil State is explored and it is evaluated by showing its
relevance to Nigerian democracy.
For proper comprehension, the work
is divided into five chapters. Chapter one serves as the background
which explicates the introduction, the statement of the problem, the
aim, the scope, the method as well as the literature review. Chapter
two treats the origin of John Locke’s civil state, which is traced back
to the state of nature. Also Locke’s view of right to private property
is stated in this chapter. In chapter three, Locke’s civil state is
exposed properly, with its basic features like the purpose of the civil
state, the separation of powers of government, the extent and limit of
representation, and the dissolution of government. In chapter four, how
the ideals in the Lockean Civil State can be of good help in tackling
some of the problems facing Nigerian democracy, is duly considered.
Finally, chapter five deals with general evaluation and conclusion.
1.5. Literature Review
In
order to properly explain Locke’s notion of civil state, there is need
to explicate the views some other thinkers have about the civil state.
A. Appadorai quoting R. Maclver in his book The substance of Politics
stated that:
The state is an association which, acting through law
as promulgated by a government endowed to this end with coercive power,
maintains within a community territorially demarcated the universal
external conditions of social order[1].
He agreed with Herbert
Spencer that “the state is nothing but a natural institution for
preventing one man from infringing the rights of another; it is a
joint-stock protection company for mutual assurance5.
Following what
is said above, from the ancient period, many philosophers in their
political thought have in one way or the other viewed on the notion of
civil state. Each of them is influenced by the political affairs of his
time, so they have related different views about the civil state.
Therefore, the views of various philosophers of different epochs are to
be reviewed.
Plato one of the ancient philosophers, in his political
thought held that the state originated for the reflection of people’s
economic needs. This means that for him, as he is quoted by Stumpf in
his book Philosophy: History and Problems, “a state comes into existence
because no individual is self sufficing, we all have many needsâ€6. The
state exists for the service of
needs of men. In other words, “men are not independent of one another,
but
needs the aid and co-operation of others in the production of
necessaries of lifeâ€7. He divided the citizens of the state into three
classes, namely: the guardians who are the rulers, the auxiliaries who
are the soldiers of the state, and the common people who provide the
material needs of the state.
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