violence from fellow human beings,">

Economics Dictionary of Arguments

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Power: Political power is the ability to influence or control the behavior of others in the political sphere. It can be exercised through formal institutions, such as the government, or through informal means, such as persuasion or coercion. See also Coercion, Persuasion, Government, Governance, Society, Politics, Democracy, Ideology.
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Annotation: The above characterizations of concepts are neither definitions nor exhausting presentations of problems related to them. Instead, they are intended to give a short introduction to the contributions below. – Lexicon of Arguments.

 
Author Concept Summary/Quotes Sources

John Locke on Power - Dictionary of Arguments

Höffe I 255
Power/Locke/Höffe: Hobbes' basic question was: "How do you protect the individual from
violence from fellow human beings, the potential enemy of civil war?" Locke poses the follow-up question to the threat of abuse of power: "How do you protect the protected from their protector?" He gives three answers:
1) (...) Separation of powers: The supreme but not sovereign power, the legislature, must be separated from the executive power, which is responsible for law enforcement.
2) In addition, there is a third power, which, however, does not exist in the judiciary as is usual today, but is assigned to the executive.
3) The third power, called "federal", decides on war and peace, on alliances and all other foreign policy issues. Because it is responsible for the external perspective, it is different in nature from the executive power, but, Locke admits, it is difficult to separate from it in terms of personnel.
Ad 2): The second answer subjects the two non-legislative powers to the law (principle of legality). If it is violated, one acts tyrannically. Without mentioning here the "arch-philosopher" (§74, FN)(1), i.e. Aristotle, Locke adopts the distinction, which goes back to him, of a power serving either the common good or the ruler's good.
>Authority
, >Governance, >Legislation.

1. J. Locke, Second treatise of Government

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Explanation of symbols: Roman numerals indicate the source, arabic numerals indicate the page number. The corresponding books are indicated on the right hand side. ((s)…): Comment by the sender of the contribution. Translations: Dictionary of Arguments
The note [Concept/Author], [Author1]Vs[Author2] or [Author]Vs[term] resp. "problem:"/"solution:", "old:"/"new:" and "thesis:" is an addition from the Dictionary of Arguments. If a German edition is specified, the page numbers refer to this edition.

Loc III
J. Locke
An Essay Concerning Human Understanding

Höffe I
Otfried Höffe
Geschichte des politischen Denkens München 2016


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