So far as there is a sovereign at all in Locke's book, it is the will of that majority which Rousseau tried to disguise under the name of the general will; but obviously the conception lacks precision enough to give the notion of sovereignty the means of operation.
Laski critiques the ambiguity in Locke's conception of sovereignty, linking it to Rousseau's general will.
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It is an attempt to give each man as similar a chance as possible to utilize what powers he may possess.
The theorist of the Revolution is Locke; and it was his conscious effort to justify the innovations of 1688.
But we cannot understand the eighteenth century, or its theories, unless we realize that its temper was still dominantly aristocratic.
Liberty means self-government, and self-government means the right of every man to be his own legislator.
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