Who authored Two Treatises of Civil Government in 1690, arguing that revolution is justified if a government violates fundamental rights?

• A. John Locke
• B. Thomas Hobbes
• C. Voltaire
• D. Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Answer: (A)

John Locke. The main idea here is that governments exist to protect natural rights—life, liberty, and property—and derive their legitimacy from the consent of the governed. Locke argues that if a government violates those fundamental rights or rules without the people’s consent, it loses its legitimacy and the people have the right to resist or overthrow it and establish a new government that better protects those rights. This view in Two Treatises of Civil Government (1690) helped lay the groundwork for modern liberal democracy and justified revolutionary action in cases of tyranny. Other thinkers, like Hobbes, argued for strong sovereign authority to prevent chaos, rather than a right of rebellion; Voltaire and Rousseau proposed different frameworks about liberty and sovereignty that don’t match this specific claim from Locke.