The distinction is made in the light of what is to follow.

For Locke was above all anxious to leave supreme power in a community whose single will, as manifested by majority-verdict, could not be challenged by any lesser organ than itself.

Government there must be if political society is to endure; but its form and substance are dependent upon popular institution.
Locke follows in the great Aristotelian tradition of dividing the types of government into three.

Where the power of making laws is in a single hand we have a monarchy; where it is exercised by a few or all we have alternatively oligarchy and democracy.

The disposition of the legislative power is the fundamental test of type; for executive and judiciary are clearly dependent on it.