The Book That Invented Modern Democracy: John Locke’s Two Treatises of Government.

Published in 1689, John Locke’s Two Treatises of Government challenged the idea of divine monarchy and introduced a revolutionary concept: that governments derive their authority from the consent of the governed. Before this work, kings ruled by divine right, with power believed to come from God. Locke rejected that foundation entirely. He argued that individuals are born with natural rights—life, liberty, and property—and that government exists only through a social contract among free people. When that contract is broken, the people retain the right to dissolve the government.

These principles would later find their most influential political expression in the work of Thomas Jefferson. In drafting the Declaration of Independence in 1776, Jefferson drew directly on Locke’s framework, translating philosophical argument into revolutionary doctrine. Locke’s formulation of natural rights reappears, slightly altered, as “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” while the central claim—that government exists by consent and may be overthrown if it fails in its purpose—remains unchanged.

Through Jefferson and the American founding, Locke’s ideas moved from theory into practice, providing the intellectual foundation for a new form of government. The result was not merely a break from monarchy, but the establishment of a political model grounded in individual rights, limited authority, and popular sovereignty.

In this sense, Two Treatises of Government did not simply critique existing systems of power—it helped to define the terms of modern democracy itself. Nearly three and a half centuries later, its core arguments continue to shape debates about freedom, authority, and the legitimacy of government.

The first edition of Two Treatises of Government, published at the end of 1689 in a print run of likely only 1,000 copies, stands in striking contrast to the vast influence the work would later exert. From this relatively small edition emerged ideas that would reshape governments across continents. Nearly three and a half centuries later, debates about freedom, state power, and individual rights continue to trace back to Locke’s argument, making the survival of any first edition not only a bibliographic rarity, but a tangible link to the origins of modern democracy.

This exceptional example is currently for sale in our Worth Avenue gallery and on our website here. Browse all of the works of John Locke currently in our collection here.