John Locke Global Essay Prize 2026 Politics Prompts Breakdown
The John Locke Institute has just released the prompts for their international essay writing competitions for high school students. They have released three prompts for each of the following categories, philosophy, politics, economics, history, law, psychology, and theology. Each essay must address only one of the questions in your chosen subject category, and must not exceed 2000 words (not counting diagrams, tables of data, endnotes, bibliography or authorship declaration).
To be eligible to compete, one's 19th birthday must fall after 31 May, 2026. Given this easily satisfied requirement for high school students the world over, many compete in this competition, making it incredibly competitive.
The John Locke Competition is one of the most prestigious essay writing competitions for high school students. It ranks alongside the Scholastic Arts and Writing Awards as a humanities extracurricular activity that would impress admissions officers. Placing competitively in this competition could be what convinces an admissions officer at an elite university to admit an applicant.
One major difference between the John Locke competition and the Scholastic Writing and Arts Awards is that it has a right-wing, instead of a left-wing focus. Past winning essays have argued for fringe ideas like anarcho-capitalism. The John Locke Institute is committed to upholding the principles of classical liberalism espoused by John Locke, the founder of liberalism. Being liberal in Europe has a different connotation than it does in the U.S. While liberalism in the U.S. is associated with center-left politics like the Democratic Party, in Europe, it denotes what Americans would call libertarians, who believe in laissez-faire economic policies and upholding individual freedom to the point that it might enable individuals to infringe on the liberties of others, such as individuals having the right to deny service to people at their place of business due to their sexual orientation.
Despite the competition's right-wing focus, and the well-known left-wing bias of academics and admissions officers, high school students can place competitively without arguing for positions that would decrease their likability with a left-wing audience when applying to college.
We have extensive experience guiding applicants through this competition and are proud to have students who received at least a commendation from the judges. In this article, we will outline the three politics questions they ask and provide resources, along with cliff notes for these resources, to help start one's journey towards drafting compelling answers to these questions.
Politics Q1: Is the right to self-determination absolute?
John Locke's Works
1. Two Treatises of Government (1689)
Chapter II establishes natural freedom and equality as foundational to human condition
Chapter IV distinguishes liberty from license, freedom operates within natural law constraints
Chapter VIII on the beginnings of political societies addresses consent and collective self-determination
Chapter XIX on dissolution of government implies limits when self-determination conflicts with natural rights
2. A Letter Concerning Toleration (1689)
Argues for individual conscience as inviolable, a form of personal self-determination
Sets boundaries: toleration does not extend to those who would harm civil society
Provides framework for when collective determination can limit individual choices
3. An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1689)
Book II, Chapter XXI on power and freedom examines the nature of voluntary action
Discusses how understanding and reason shape legitimate self-direction
Relevant for examining whether self-determination requires rational capacity
Historical Resources
1. Immanuel Kant's "Perpetual Peace" (1795)
First Definitive Article requires republican constitutions, linking self-determination to governance structures
Argues national self-determination must be constrained by cosmopolitan law
Provides framework for when international norms can override national self-determination
2. John Stuart Mill's "Considerations on Representative Government" (1861)
Chapter XVI specifically addresses nationality and self-determination
Argues peoples should be governed by those sharing their nationality
Introduces important exceptions and complications to self-determination claims
3. Woodrow Wilson's "Fourteen Points" (1918)
Points V-XIII outline national self-determination as organizing principle for post-WWI order
Reveals practical tensions: whose self-determination takes precedence in mixed regions?
Historical example of self-determination creating new conflicts
4. Giuseppe Mazzini's "The Duties of Man" (1860)
Foundational text for 19th-century nationalist movements
Argues national self-determination is a sacred duty, not merely a right
Places limits: nationalism must serve broader humanity
5. Edmund Burke's "Reflections on the Revolution in France" (1790)
Conservative critique of abstract rights including unlimited self-determination
Argues inherited institutions and gradual reform trump radical self-determination
Provides counterargument to absolutist conceptions of political self-determination
Contemporary Resources
1. Allen Buchanan's "Secession: The Morality of Political Divorce" (1991)
Systematic philosophical treatment of when secession is justified
Distinguishes primary right theories (self-determination is sufficient) from remedial right theories (requires grievance)
Argues against absolutist self-determination, must be weighed against other considerations
2. Margaret Moore's "A Political Theory of Territory" (2015)
Examines territorial rights and their relationship to self-determination
Analyzes competing claims when multiple groups seek self-determination over same territory
Provides framework for adjudicating between conflicting self-determination claims
3. Will Kymlicka's "Multicultural Citizenship" (1995)
Distinguishes national minorities from immigrant groups with different self-determination claims
Argues for graduated self-determination rights short of full sovereignty
Shows self-determination exists on a spectrum, not as binary absolute
4. Hurst Hannum's "Autonomy, Sovereignty, and Self-Determination" (1996)
Comprehensive examination of self-determination in international law
Traces evolution from colonial context to post-Cold War applications
Demonstrates how international practice treats self-determination as qualified, not absolute
5. Anna Stilz's "Territorial Sovereignty: A Philosophical Exploration" (2019)
Examines moral foundations of territorial claims
Addresses when occupant self-determination conflicts with historical claims
Proposes theory balancing self-determination against justice constraints
6. Antonio Cassese's "Self-Determination of Peoples: A Legal Reappraisal" (1995)
Authoritative legal analysis of self-determination in international law
Distinguishes internal self-determination (autonomy) from external (independence)
Shows how uti possidetis principle limits self-determination in practice
Key Questions and Issues to Address
Definitional Challenges
What constitutes a "self" entitled to determination, ethnic groups, nations, states, individuals?
Does self-determination mean full sovereignty, autonomy, or merely participation?
How does Locke's conception of natural freedom relate to collective self-determination?
Theoretical Frameworks
Primary right theories: Is shared identity alone sufficient to ground self-determination?
Remedial right theories: Must there be injustice to trigger self-determination claims?
How would Locke's natural rights framework evaluate self-determination claims?
Practical Complications
What happens when multiple groups claim self-determination over the same territory?
Can self-determination be exercised to oppress minorities within the new entity?
How do economic viability and security considerations affect self-determination's scope?
Contemporary Applications
Kosovo, Catalonia, Scotland, Taiwan, how do these cases illuminate the limits of self-determination?
Does international recognition determine legitimate self-determination?
How should democracies handle internal secessionist movements?
Politics Q2: Did the pandemic normalise authoritarianism?
John Locke's Works
1. Two Treatises of Government (1689)
Chapter XIV on prerogative addresses emergency executive power outside ordinary law
Locke permits broad prerogative "for the public good" but requires ultimate accountability
Chapter XVIII distinguishes tyranny from legitimate authority, relevant for evaluating pandemic measures
Chapter XIX provides criteria for when government exceeds legitimate bounds
2. A Letter Concerning Toleration (1689)
Establishes limits on state authority over individual conscience
Argues civil magistrate cannot compel matters of personal belief
Relevant for examining vaccine mandates and religious exemptions
3. An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1689)
Book IV on knowledge and opinion distinguishes demonstrated truth from probable belief
Relevant for examining "follow the science" claims and technocratic authority
Addresses how epistemic humility should constrain government action
Historical Resources
1. Carl Schmitt's "Political Theology" (1922)
Famous dictum: "Sovereign is he who decides on the exception"
Analyzes how emergency powers define and expand state authority
Provides theoretical framework for understanding pandemic emergency declarations
2. Friedrich Hayek's "The Road to Serfdom" (1944)
Chapter 10 addresses why "the worst get on top" in centralized planning
Argues emergency economic controls tend to become permanent
Warns against technocratic authority replacing democratic deliberation
3. Hannah Arendt's "The Origins of Totalitarianism" (1951)
Part III analyzes how totalitarian movements exploit crises and atomization
Discusses propaganda, mass movements, and the destruction of public space
Relevant for examining social media censorship and "misinformation" policies
4. Clinton Rossiter's "Constitutional Dictatorship" (1948)
Classic study of emergency powers in democratic systems
Examines Roman dictatorship, Lincoln's war powers, Weimar Article 48
Identifies conditions under which emergency powers undermine rather than preserve democracy
5. Michel Foucault's "Discipline and Punish" (1975)
Part III analyzes "panopticism" and surveillance as tools of social control
Historical example of plague quarantine as origin of disciplinary techniques
Framework for understanding digital contact tracing and vaccine passports
Contemporary Resources
1. Giorgio Agamben's "State of Exception" (2003) and pandemic essays
Argues exception has become the rule in modern governance
2020 essays controversially criticized pandemic response as authoritarian overreach
Provides philosophical framework for most critical interpretations of pandemic governance
2. V-Dem Institute Annual Democracy Reports (2020-2024)
Empirical data tracking democratic backsliding during and after pandemic
Documents 75+ countries violating democratic standards via pandemic measures
Tracks whether emergency measures were rescinded or made permanent
3. Freedom House "Freedom in the World" Reports (2020-2024)
Documents global decline in freedom during pandemic years
Tracks restrictions on assembly, movement, expression
Provides country-by-country comparison of pandemic-era restrictions
4. Tom Ginsburg and Mila Versteeg, "The Bound Executive" (Virginia Law Review, 2020)
Examines constitutional constraints on pandemic emergency powers
Comparative analysis of how different legal systems limited executive authority
Argues constitutional design affected pandemic response patterns
5. Alex de Waal, "New Pathogen, Old Politics" (2020)
Examines how existing political structures shaped pandemic responses
Argues authoritarian tendencies predated pandemic and were merely revealed
Distinguishes normalisation from acceleration of existing trends
6. Jay Bhattacharya, Martin Kulldorff et al., "The Great Barrington Declaration" (2020)
Public health argument against lockdown policies
Controversial document that prompted censorship debates
Case study in how expert dissent was treated during pandemic
7. Yuval Noah Harari, "The World After Coronavirus" (Financial Times, 2020)
Warns of surveillance normalization and "under the skin" monitoring
Distinguishes temporary measures from permanent shifts in state power
Argues crisis decisions shape long-term political structures
Key Questions and Issues to Address
Definitional Challenges
What distinguishes authoritarian measures from legitimate emergency powers?
Does "normalisation" mean public acceptance, legal permanence, or both?
How would Locke's theory of prerogative evaluate pandemic restrictions?
Theoretical Frameworks
Carl Schmitt vs. liberal constitutionalism: Are emergencies fundamentally extralegal?
Does the ratchet effect (crisis powers rarely fully rescinded) apply to pandemic measures?
Foucauldian biopolitics: Did pandemic reveal or create new forms of governance?
Empirical Questions
Which specific pandemic measures have been maintained post-emergency?
How have public attitudes toward state authority changed since 2019?
Did democracies perform differently from autocracies in pandemic response?
Comparative Considerations
China's zero-COVID vs. Sweden's light-touch: What do these extremes reveal?
Were restrictions proportionate to actual public health necessity?
How did courts and legislatures perform in checking executive authority?
Politics Q3: Is democracy in crisis?
John Locke's Works
1. Two Treatises of Government (1689)
Chapter X distinguishes democracy, oligarchy, and monarchy, provides baseline definitions
Chapter XIII on legislative power establishes accountability as essential to legitimate rule
Chapter XIX examines conditions under which government loses legitimacy
Provides framework for evaluating whether current democracies maintain consent-based legitimacy
2. A Letter Concerning Toleration (1689)
Argues civil peace requires managing religious diversity, applicable to contemporary polarization
Establishes that legitimate disagreement is compatible with political unity
Relevant for examining whether cultural conflict threatens democratic stability
3. Some Thoughts Concerning Education (1693)
Discusses formation of citizens capable of self-governance
Emphasizes reason, virtue, and civic capacity as preconditions for free society
Relevant for examining whether educational decline threatens democratic competence
Historical Resources
1. Plato's "Republic"
Book VIII describes democracy's degeneration into tyranny
Argues excessive freedom produces disorder that invites authoritarian response
Classic critique applicable to contemporary populism concerns
2. Alexis de Tocqueville's "Democracy in America" (1835-1840)
Volume II, Part IV warns of "soft despotism" and democratic paternalism
Identifies civic associations as bulwark against democratic decline
Framework for understanding democratic resilience and vulnerability
3. Joseph Schumpeter's "Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy" (1942)
Part IV develops "elite theory" of democracy as competition for leadership
Argues classical democratic theory is unrealistic about citizen participation
Relevant for debates about populism and elite legitimacy
4. José Ortega y Gasset's "The Revolt of the Masses" (1930)
Analyzes mass politics and the decline of liberal institutions
Warns of "hyperdemocracy" where mass opinion overrides institutional constraints
Prescient analysis of tensions between populism and liberalism
5. Robert Michels' "Political Parties" (1911)
Develops "iron law of oligarchy,” all organizations tend toward elite rule
Argues democratic parties inevitably become oligarchic
Framework for understanding party decline and institutional capture
Contemporary Resources
1. Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt's "How Democracies Die" (2018)
Argues modern democratic decline comes through elections, not coups
Identifies erosion of norms (mutual toleration, institutional forbearance) as key vulnerability
Case studies from Latin America and Europe applied to contemporary U.S.
2. Yascha Mounk's "The People vs. Democracy" (2018)
Distinguishes "illiberal democracy" from "undemocratic liberalism"
Argues democracy and liberalism are separating after long fusion
Examines economic stagnation, immigration, and social media as causes
3. Adam Przeworski's "Crises of Democracy" (2019)
Skeptical view: Democracy has always been crisis-prone and survived
Argues current crisis talk resembles past false alarms
Provides counterpoint to declinist narratives
4. Larry Diamond's "Ill Winds: Saving Democracy from Russian Rage, Chinese Ambition, and American Complacency" (2019)
Documents global democratic recession since 2006
Examines how authoritarian powers actively undermine democracies
Argues crisis requires both domestic reform and international strategy
5. Francis Fukuyama's "Political Order and Political Decay" (2014)
Examines how political institutions develop and decline
Identifies "repatrimonialization" (elite capture) as key decay mechanism
Framework for understanding institutional degradation in mature democracies
6. Pippa Norris and Ronald Inglehart's "Cultural Backlash" (2019)
Argues authoritarian populism is cultural backlash against progressive value change
Uses World Values Survey data to track attitude shifts
Provides demographic and generational explanation for polarization
7. Martin Gurri's "The Revolt of the Public" (2014, updated 2018)
Argues digital information has permanently destabilized institutional authority
Examines how networked publics challenge elite narratives
Framework for understanding social media's role in democratic disruption
Key Questions and Issues to Address
Definitional Challenges
What constitutes a democratic "crisis" versus normal turbulence?
Which elements of democracy are threatened: elections, rights, institutions, norms?
How would Locke distinguish legitimate from illegitimate democratic governance?
Theoretical Frameworks
Is democratic decline cyclical (Polybius) or contingent on specific conditions?
Does liberal democracy require specific economic or cultural preconditions?
Is populism a corrective to elite capture or a symptom of democratic decay?
Empirical Evidence
What do democracy indices (V-Dem, Freedom House, EIU) actually measure?
Is democratic decline concentrated in specific regions or universal?
How do citizens actually evaluate their democracies?
Contemporary Considerations
Social media: democratizing or polarizing force?
Economic inequality: cause or effect of democratic dysfunction?
Is declining trust in institutions justified by institutional performance?
If you are overwhelmed by the number of sources and complexity of answering these questions, we understand. English teachers don't prepare high school students to tackle such formidable challenges in the humanities. But we do. Schedule a free consultation with a John Locke competition writing expert today and learn how to unpack all of these sources to write a coherent and logically sound 2000 word essay which will earn you a competitive placing in this competition and impress admission officers.
Work With Our John Locke Expert Coaches
If you are overwhelmed by the number of sources and complexity of answering these questions, we understand. English teachers don't prepare high school students to tackle such formidable challenges in the humanities. But we do.
Cosmic College Consulting has helped students earn shortlists, commendations, and prizes in the John Locke Competition. Our three expert coaches have collectively supervised 50+ John Locke essays and bring deep expertise in philosophy, politics, economics, and academic writing.
Marcus Lewis
John Locke Specialist | Scholastic Writing Expert
Supervised 25+ John Locke Competition essays with approximately 10 students earning commendations
Extensive Scholastic Arts & Writing Awards coaching, most students earn Gold or Silver Keys
Experience across fiction, satire, and argumentative essay forms
Coached students for Columbia Undergraduate Law Review Essay Competition (1 shortlist)
Additional experience with Profiles in Courage, Harvard Economics Essay, Bowseat, Engineer Girl, and Patricia Grodd Poetry competitions
Dr. Jason Goldfarb
PhD, Duke University | Published Academic & Periodical Writer
Supervised 25+ John Locke Competition essays, students have earned shortlists, Junior Prize placements, and top commendations
Supervised 10+ independent student research papers
Guided student publications in TeenInk, Scholastic, and IEEE Harvard
Published author in professional academic journals and popular periodicals
Brings doctoral-level expertise in constructing rigorous academic arguments
Ready to Write a Winning Essay?
Schedule a free consultation with one of our John Locke expert coaches today. Learn how to unpack these sources, develop a compelling thesis, and write a coherent, logically sound 2000-word essay that will earn you a competitive placing in this competition and impress admissions officers.
