Usurpation and Tyranny

“Usurpation” – the exercise of some otherwise legitimate governmental power as to which the particular actor actor enjoys no legal claim.[1]

“Tyranny” – the exercise of some purportedly “governmental”, but actually oppressive, power to which no one can claim ant legal or moral right, or the misuse of an otherwise legitimate governmental power for the private aggrandizement of the tyrant and his adherents rather than for the common good of the people.[2]

1.) John Locke, Two Treatises of Government, (London, England: Awnsham & Churchill, 1698. Book II, Chapters XVII, § 199. See also Black’s Law Dictionary (St. Paul Minnesota: West Publising Co., Revised Fourth Edition, 1968), at 1689.

2.) John Locke, Two Treatises of Government, (London, England: Awnsham & Churchill, 1698. Book II, Chapters XVII-XVII, §§ 197-199. See also Black’s Law Dictionary (St. Paul Minnesota: West Publising Co., Revised Fourth Edition, 1968), at 1713.