Political power is lawmaking backed by force and limited to the public good

Evidence

Sect. 3. POLITICAL POWER, then, I take to be a RIGHT of making laws with penalties of death, and consequently all less penalties, for the regulating and preserving of property, and of employing the force of the community, in the execution of such laws, and in the defence of the commonwealth from foreign injury; and all this only for the public good. — John Locke, Second Treatise of Government, 7

Sect. 3. POLITICAL POWER, then, I take to be a RIGHT of making laws with penalties of death, and consequently all less penalties, for the regulating and preserving of property, and of employing the force of the community, in the execution of such laws, and in the defence of the commonwealth from foreign injury; and all this only for the public good. — , Second Treatise of Government, 12

Categorization

• XREF: Central definition the Declaration draws from — Locke ties government’s legitimacy to securing property and the public good, which the reader can trace into American constitutional doctrine and judicial review. — connects to: Legislative power is inherently limited to the common good and standing law — John Locke, Second Treatise of Government, 158; Legislative power cannot take property without the owner’s consent — John Locke, Second Treatise of Government, 171; Physical force constitutes power because it asymmetrically orders parties’ relative preferences (+6 more)
• DEFINE: Defines political power as a right to legislate with penalty, exercising community force, strictly for the public good.
• SEED: Seed for a piece on how Locke’s ‘public good’ constraint migrated into American limited-government and police-power jurisprudence.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — John Locke, Second Treatise of Government, 7; , Second Treatise of Government, 12

Broader Connections

• Physical force constitutes power because it asymmetrically orders parties’ relative preferences #expands (0.85)
• Physical force mediates power’s symbolic and organic levels, differentiating political power #expands (0.80)
• Laws limit but can never inspire political action #qualifies (0.75)