John Locke and the origins of prerogative

Larry Boothe

Blog Post #2

John Locke- Second Treatise of Civil Government, “Of Prerogative”

Locke contends that above all things an executive, or “prince” needs to avoid, an abuse of executive prerogative is foremost. Executive prerogative refers to “the power to act according to discretion for the public good, without the prescription of the law, and sometimes even against it.” This privilege is not a right of the leader, but a trust placed in him by the people. The leader only has as much power (privilege) as the people invest in him. When the leader abuses this power, which was never even placed in his hands, then it is the natural right of the people to “appeal to heaven” when the majority judge it to be necessary. Locke contends that executive prerogative is most threatening when a successor to a successful leader claims the same freedoms and rights based on precedent. This, he says, is most dangerous to the liberties of the people, because it is difficult to recover power once it has been given away. Although this might have applied to the uninformed populous of 17^th century England, I don’t believe it to be the case in modern day America. When a president tries to accrue too much power through the executive privilege doctrine, the people are quick to take notice. Executive privilege came into the spotlight after president Nixon made the most blatant overreach of presidential powers in history during the early 1970s. Following Watergate, the public was outraged and impeachment was unavoidable. The following administrations of Ford and Carter were two of the most passive in US history, rarely ever invoking executive privilege.₁ Not until nearly 30 years later and the unique nature of the attacks on 9/11 has any president even attempted to use executive privilege on the same scale as the Nixon administration. The point is that the executive office is more transparent than in the past, so the public can plainly see when a president is overreaching his powers and abusing his executive privilege. Does this indicate that perhaps other factors, particularly crisis or war, serve as the most common and acceptable precursors to an excess of executive prerogative in today’s society?

₁ Rudalevige, Andrew. “The World after Watergate: The Resurgence Regime Takes Shape.” The New Imperial Presidency. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 2005. 106