Dissertation Abstract: Ross J. Corbett
Locke and the Problem of Crisis Leadership
Written at Brown University, 2005
John Locke argues for the necessity and right of extralegal executive action (prerogative) within the framework
of a society governed by laws. Such actions are justified by the same arguments used to support the rule of law.
The use of these powers, however, threatens to overturn the commonwealth; in the final analysis, Locke relies upon
the spirited enlightenment of the people to combat this threat. The necessity of extralegal actions is representative
of mankind’s merely-partial success in conquering a world governed by chance and characterized by flux. The study
of prerogative reveals the dependence of the Lockean commonwealth upon the proper education of its members.
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