Marsha Pominova John Lockes idea of natural rights, where individuals are guaranteed life, liberty and property

in a social contract with the government, is the best form of government because it promotes equality and fair treatment of all people as well as their involvement in the government. His theory was the basis of democracy today, because he developed concepts of natural liberty, equality, religious tolerance, rule of law over the rule of power, and society being more important than the government, which are fundamental aspects of the value systems of western society today. Lockes theory is that in the absence of government, the state of nature, people have three things: their life, liberty, and property, peoples natural rights. And when a government is formed, people are coming together for protection, not submitting themselves under anothers rule, and all members of the group are equal and therefore still have a right to their life, liberty, and property. For example, in the formation of the United States constitution its creators made an attempt to make a society based on equality, even though at the time it was limited to land-owning, white men. This demonstrates the way that government is formed. The people in the North American Colonies formed a government for protection against the British, who they just overthrew, and did not have to give up natural rights, as they would within a monarchy. Despite the fact that John Lockes theory promotes liberty over order, when the government is set up in a way where no one is discriminated against and no ones natural rights are taken away, there is order because when people have a say in the creation of the government run by the rule of law it provides opportunity for them to improve on it since there is input from many people rather than just the monarch. One of John Lockes ideas helped further protect natural rights was the separation of powers. This was applied to the United States government, where the each branches power was limited to their area: the executive branch to carry out the laws, legislative branch to create them while representing the people, and judicial branch interpreting the laws. This system limits the governments power and is least likely to fail because it would be difficult for one branch of the government to overthrow the others. The Social Contract that Locke came up with stated that if the government was to threaten the peoples natural rights, the people had the right to rebel against it. Many countries put his idea into action by rebelling against their government for breaching the social contract and improving their society, making their country a better, more liberal place. Such as the government of the USSR hugely restricted peoples natural rights, not allowing people to receive an education or job because of their religion, limiting the peoples liberty to speak and write in any language but Russian and limiting them in the ability to own property, and killing or imprisoning people for speaking out against the government. The countries that broke away from the USSR followed Lockes idea that the people had a right to rebel when the social contract was breached, and in doing so they managed to improve their government by setting up a democratic republic.