Of the Forms of a Commonwealth

Chapter 10 is the treatise's most compressed chapter — two paragraphs that settle terminology and frame the theory of governmental forms. The majority, having formed a society, holds the whole power of the community. They may use that power in three ways: by keeping it in the whole community and legislating by their collective will (a perfect democracy); by delegating it to a small assembly of chosen persons and their heirs (an oligarchy); or by placing it in one person alone (a monarchy). Mixed forms are also possible. Locke lists these possibilities neutrally: any of them may produce a legitimate government, provided it rests on the consent of the people.

Locke also clarifies his terminology. Throughout the treatise, "commonwealth" should be understood not as a democracy or any particular form of government, but as any independent community — what the Latins called civitas. The word "commonwealth," Locke notes, best expresses what he means: a society of men formed under government for the common good, whatever its particular form. This is important because the arguments of chapters 11 through 14 — about the limits of legislative power, the role of the executive, and prerogative — apply to all forms of legitimate government, not just democratic ones.

The neutrality among governmental forms is one of the most significant features of Locke's theory. He is not a democrat in the modern sense; he does not argue that democracy is the only legitimate form. What he argues is that legitimacy depends on consent and on the protection of rights, and that these conditions can in principle be met by any form of government that holds its legislative power accountable to the people who granted it. The shift in focus from form to function — from the structure of government to its purpose and accountability — is one of Locke's most consequential contributions to political thought.