Consent of the governed

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Categories: Articles to be merged since February 2008 | Political philosophy | Philosophical terminology | Political science theories

It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Popular sovereignty. (Discuss)

The Politics series
List of politics topics Consent of the governed Politics by country Politics by subdivision Political economy Political history Political philosophy Political science International relations International relations theory Political scientists Comparative politics Public administration Bureaucracy Street-level bureaucracy Separation of powers Executive Judiciary Legislature Sovereignty Theories of political behavior
Subseries of Politics
Elections Electoral systems Voting Federalism Forms of government Ideology Political campaign Political parties
Politics Portal This box: view • talk • edit

"Consent of the governed" is a political theory stating that a government's legitimacy and moral right to use state power are, or ought to be, derived from the people or society over which that power is exercised. This theory of "consent" is historically contrasted to the divine right of kings and has often been invoked against the legitimacy of colonialism.

In the United States

Using thinking similar to that of English political scientist John Locke, the founders of the United States believed in a state built upon the consent of "free and equal" citizens; a state otherwise conceived would lack the legitimacy and the authority to exercise legal authority

References

Etienne de La Boétie, Discourse of Voluntary Servitude
Pettit, Philip, Republicanism: A Theory of Freedom and Government. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1997 (in which he argues, against a theory of the consent of the governed, in favour of a theory of the lack of explicit rebellion; following a Popperian view on falsifiability, Pettit considers that as consent of the governed is always implicitly supposed, thus trapping the social contract in a vicious circle, it should be replaced by the lack of explicit rebellion.
David Hume, Of the Original Contract
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, The Social Contract, or Principles of Political Right (1762)
H.B. Paksoy, IDENTITIES: How Governed, Who Pays?