Consent
Consent is voluntary authorization by which people form a sovereign political community, establish a government, and authorize its exercise of just powers.
The Declaration of Independence states that all human beings possess “certain unalienable Rights,” including “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness,” and then explains “that to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”
These words connect two foundational principles.
Government exists for a purpose: to secure the natural rights of individual human beings.
And legitimate political power requires consent: those who govern must derive their authority from the consent of the people who are governed.
Those in government possess no legitimate political authority merely because of hereditary privilege, superior force, or some claimed divine right to rule.
Establishing Government
Consent matters both in founding a government and in its continuing operation.
In the first instance, individuals are free to establish or found a government by and with their own consent.
The opening words of the United States Constitution make the principle unmistakable:
“We the People of the United States… do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”
Article VII required ratification by conventions in nine states—a constitutional mechanism for securing the consent of the people through specially chosen ratifying conventions—before the Constitution could take effect among the ratifying states. The people did not vote directly on ratification; the Constitution was considered by special state conventions.
The authority of the Constitution did not rest merely upon the prestige, intelligence, or power of the men who framed it. The Constitution had to be ratified through the process established for that purpose by the very people who would live under the government it created.
The Constitution, in other words, required the consent of the governed in order to acquire legal authority and, within the natural-rights principles of the Founding, political legitimacy.
Continuing Consent
After a government has been established, consent continues to matter in the operation of government and the exercise of its powers.
In a republic, those who exercise governmental power remain accountable to the people through constitutional institutions—especially representation and regular elections.
Publius explained in Federalist No. 39 that republican government “derives all its powers directly or indirectly from the great body of the people.” In other words, republican government ultimately rests upon the people’s consent.
Continuing consent does not mean that every citizen must personally approve every law or government action. Citizens will disagree.
Rather, the people establish constitutional institutions and procedures through which ordinary political decisions are made. Elections—typically determined by the majority of voters—allow citizens periodically to choose representatives and remove officeholders. Constitutional amendment provides another lawful means by which the people may alter the governmental framework itself.
Consent and Limited Government
Consent does not make every exercise of governmental power legitimate or just.
The Declaration speaks carefully of “just powers.” Government is instituted to secure natural rights. The people may therefore authorize government to exercise powers appropriate for that purpose, but mere popular approval cannot transform injustice into justice.
Within the natural-rights principles of the Declaration, governmental powers exercised for unjust purposes are illegitimate even when supported by a majority.
Thomas Jefferson expressed this distinction beautifully in his First Inaugural Address:
“Though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will, to be rightful, must be reasonable; that the minority possess their equal rights, which equal laws must protect, and to violate would be oppression.”
Jefferson thus joined majority rule to a standard of right. The majority may govern, but those within the majority cannot rightfully use the powers of government to violate the equal rights of those who happen to be outnumbered. Consent and the protection of natural rights must therefore be joined together.
A government that possesses no authorization from the governed lacks one requirement of political legitimacy. A government authorized by popular majorities for the purpose of exercising unjust powers against the natural rights of individuals lacks another.
This is why constitutional self-government involves both popular consent and limits upon political power.
When Consent Is Withdrawn
The Declaration carries the principle to its ultimate conclusion.
When government becomes destructive of the purposes for which government exists, the people retain the natural right “to alter or to abolish it” and to establish another government better designed to secure their safety and happiness. This is the right of revolution.
The Declaration immediately adds an important qualification: prudence counsels against changing long-established governments for “light and transient causes.”
The right of revolution is therefore not a claim that citizens may overthrow government whenever they dislike an election result or disagree with a particular law. It concerns the more fundamental question of whether a government has become destructive of the purposes for which legitimate government exists.
Why Consent Matters
Consent identifies the source of legitimate political power.
Those in government are not masters who naturally have a right to control and command everyone else. They exercise the limited powers delegated to them by the consent of the people.
The people remain the ultimate source of that authority and retain the natural right to alter or abolish a government that becomes destructive of the ends for which government was instituted.
Government does not create the people’s natural rights. The people create government and consent to its just powers in order to protect those rights.
