John Locke and Whig Theory

Abstract

A review of Whig literature and a study of James Tyrrell’s Bibliotheca Politica have shown that a defense of resistance was a central part of the Whig thesis of abdication and vacancy. In devising this theory ofresistance, Whig authors employed a variety of political, legal and historical arguments in order to explain how abdication could entail resistance as well as vacancy. Most Whigs denied that abdication and resistance resulted in an entire dissolution of government. A few, like Tyrrell, openly confronted this essential question and the related issues of sovereignty in the people and the right or prospect of constitutional change. More than any other Whig theorist, however, it was James Tyrrell who fully explored the variety of possible arguments and ideas, and faced the challenges that were made to the Whig defense of resistance. In the breadth as well as detail of its arguments, Tyrrell’s Bibliotheca Politica represents Whig ideology: in thefrequent and real confrontations between Freeman and Meanwell, these dialogues reveal the political and ideological needs that shapedWhig theory; and in undertaking a critical approach to the justification of 1688 and offering a full explication of abdication and vacancy, Tyrrell’s work demonstrates how the acceptance and success of Whigtheory were possible.