Who wrote Two Treatises of Government and what is its central idea?

• A. Montesquieu; central idea of separation of powers
• B. Voltaire; rational skepticism
• C. John Locke; government exists by the consent of the governed to protect natural rights
• D. Rousseau; general will

Answer: (C)

The key idea being tested is the source of government legitimacy and its purpose. John Locke argued that a government is legitimate only when it rests on the consent of the governed and its primary role is to protect natural rights—life, liberty, and property. In the Two Treatises of Government, Locke challenges the notion of absolute monarchy and explains that people enter into a social contract to form a government that limits power. If the government fails to protect those rights, or acts against them, the people retain the right to dissolve or alter the government. This idea helped shape modern liberal thought and influenced constitutional thinking in the Enlightenment and the founding principles of many democracies.

The other thinkers mentioned focus on different political ideas: Montesquieu emphasized the separation of powers; Voltaire promoted rational skepticism and critique of superstition; Rousseau spoke about the general will. None of these centers on government’s legitimacy from consent to protect natural rights in the way Locke does.