John Locke's "Two Treatises on
Government" of 1689 established two
fundamental liberal ideas: economic liberty
(meaning the right to have and use property) and
intellectual liberty (including freedom of
conscience). According to Locke, the individual
was naturally free and only became a political
subject out of free choice. Without the consent
of the people there could not be formed a civil
society/ community. Secondly, Locke
emphasized that all men were equal. There was
a perfect state of equality with all the power
being reciprocal and no one having more than
the other. This is a fundamental principle of
present day democracy. From it, flows the
democratic principle of universal participation.
That no man shall be excluded from the political
process.