Consent of the Governed? <http://www.independent.org/blog/?p=6334>
By Robert Higgs <http://www.independent.org/blog/?author=5>
Tuesday June 1, 2010
What gives some people the right to rule others? At least since John
Locke's time, the most common and seemingly compelling answer has been
"the consent of the governed
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consent_of_the_governed>." When the North
American revolutionaries set out to justify their secession from the
British Empire, they declared, among other things: "Governments are
instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the
Governed." This sounds good, especially if one doesn't think about it
very hard or very long, but the harder and longer one thinks about it,
the more problematic it becomes.
One question after another comes to mind. Must every person consent? If
not, how many must, and what options do those who do not consent have?
What form must the consent take -- verbal, written, explicit, implicit?
If implicit, how is it to be registered? Given that the composition of
society is constantly changing, owing to births, deaths, and
international migration, how often must the rulers confirm that they
retain the consent of the governed? And so on and on. Political
legitimacy, it would appear, presents a multitude of difficulties when
we move from the realm of theoretical abstraction to that of practical
realization.
I raise this question because in regard to the so-called /social
contract <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_contract>/, I have often
had occasion to protest that I haven't even seen the contract, much less
been asked to consent to it. A valid contract requires voluntary offer,
acceptance, and consideration. I've never received an offer from my
rulers, so I certainly have not accepted one; and rather than
consideration, I have received nothing but contempt from the rulers,
who, notwithstanding the absence of any agreement, have indubitably
threatened me with grave harm in the event that I fail to comply with
their edicts. What monumental effrontery these people exhibit! What
gives them the right to rob me and push me around? It certainly is not
/my/ desire to be a sheep for them to shear or slaughter as they deem
expedient for the attainment of their own ends.
Moreover, when we flesh out the idea of "consent of the governed" in
realistic detail, the whole notion quickly becomes utterly preposterous.
Just consider how it would work. A would-be ruler approaches you and
offers a contract for your approval. Here, says he, is the deal.
*I, the party of the first part ("the ruler"), promise*:
(1) To stipulate how much of your money you will hand over to me, as
well as how, when, and where the transfer will be made. You will
have no effective say in the matter, aside from pleading for my
mercy, and if you should fail to comply, my agents will punish you
with fines, imprisonment, and (in the event of your persistent
resistance) death.
(2) To make thousands upon thousands of rules for you to obey
without question, again on pain of punishment by my agents. You will
have no effective say in determining the content of these rules,
which will be so numerous, complex, and in many cases beyond
comprehension that no human being could conceivably know about more
than a handful of them, much less their specific character, yet if
you should fail to comply with any of them, I will feel free to
punish you to the extent of a law made my me and my confederates.
(3) To provide for your use, on terms stipulated by me and my
agents, so-called public goods and services. Although you may
actually place some value on a few of these goods and services, most
will have little or no value to you, and some you will find utterly
abhorrent, and in no event will you as an individual have any
effective say over the goods and services I provide, notwithstanding
any economist's cock-and-bull story to the effect that you "demand"
all this stuff and value it at whatever amount of money I choose to
expend for its provision.
(4) In the event of a dispute between us, judges beholden to me for
their appointment and salaries will decide how to settle the
dispute. You can expect to lose in these settlements, if your case
is heard at all.
In exchange for the foregoing government "benefits," *you,* *the
party of the second part ("the subject"), promise*:
(5) To shut up, make no waves, obey all orders issued by the ruler
and his agents, kowtow to them as if they were important, honorable
people, and when they say "jump," ask only "how high?"
Such a deal! Can we really imagine that any sane person would consent to it?
Yet the foregoing description of the true social contract into which
individuals are said to have entered is much too abstract to capture the
raw realities of being governed. In enumerating the actual details, no
one has ever surpassed Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, who wrote:
To be GOVERNED is to be kept in sight, inspected, spied upon,
directed, law-driven, numbered, enrolled, indoctrinated, preached
at, controlled, estimated, valued, censured, commanded, by creatures
who have neither the right, nor the wisdom, nor the virtue to do so.
To be GOVERNED is to be at every operation, at every transaction,
noted, registered, enrolled, taxed, stamped, measured, numbered,
assessed, licensed, authorized, admonished, forbidden, reformed,
corrected, punished. It is, under pretext of public utility, and in
the name of the general interest, to be placed under contribution,
trained, ransomed, exploited, monopolized, extorted, squeezed,
mystified, robbed; then, at the slightest resistance, the first word
of complaint, to be repressed, fined, despised, harassed, tracked,
abused, clubbed, disarmed, choked, imprisoned, judged, condemned,
shot, deported, sacrificed, sold, betrayed; and, to crown all,
mocked, ridiculed, outraged, dishonored. That is government; that is
its justice; that is its morality. (P.-J. Proudhon, /General Idea
of the Revolution in the Nineteenth Century/, trans. John Beverley
Robinson. London: Freedom Press, 1923, p. 294)
Nowadays, of course, we would have to supplement Proudhon's
admirably precise account by noting that our being governed also entails
our being electronically monitored, tracked by orbiting satellites,
tased more or less at random, and invaded in our premises by SWAT teams
of police, often under the pretext of their overriding our natural right
to decide what substances we will ingest, inject, or inhale into what
used to be known as "our own bodies."
So, to return to the question of political legitimacy as determined by
the consent of the governed, it appears upon sober reflection that the
whole idea is as fanciful as the unicorn. No one in his right mind, save
perhaps an incurable masochist, would voluntarily consent to be treated
as governments actually treat their subjects.
Nevertheless, very few of us in this country at present are actively
engaged in armed rebellion against our rulers. And it is precisely this
absence of outright violent revolt that, strange to say, some
commentators take as evidence of our /consent/ to the outrageous manner
in which the government treats us. Grudging, prudential acquiescence,
however, is not the same thing as consent, especially when the people
acquiesce, as I do, only in simmering, indignant resignation.
For the record, I can state in complete candor that I do /not/ approve
of the manner in which I am being treated by the liars, thieves, and
murderers who style themselves the Government of the United States of
America or by those who constitute the tyrannical pyramid of state,
local, and hybrid governments with which this country is massively
infested. My sincere wish is that all of these individuals would, for
once in their despicable lives, do the honorable thing. In this regard,
I suggest that they give serious consideration to Seppuku
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seppuku>. Whether they employ a sharp
sword or a dull one, I care not, so long as they carry the act to a
successful completion.
*Addendum* on "love it or leave it": Whenever I write along the
foregoing lines, I always receive messages from Neanderthals who,
imagining that I "hate America," demand that I get the hell out of this
country and go back to wherever I came from. Such reactions evince not
only bad manners, but a fundamental misunderstanding of my grievance.
I most emphatically do not hate America. I was not born in some foreign
despotism, but in a domestic one known as Oklahoma, which I understand
to be the very heart and soul of this country so far as culture and
refinement are concerned. Moreover, for what it is worth, some of my
ancestors had been living in North America for centuries before a
handful of ragged, starving white men washed ashore on this continent,
planted their flag, and claimed all the land they could see and a great
deal they could not see on behalf of some sorry-ass European monarch.
What chutzpah! I yield to no one in my affection for the Statue of
Liberty, the Rocky Mountains, and the amber waves of grain, not to
mention the celebrated jumping frog of Calaveras County. So when I am
invited to get out of the country, I feel like someone living in a town
taken over by the James Gang who has been told that if he doesn't like
being robbed and bullied by uninvited thugs, he should move to another
town. To me, it seems much more fitting that the criminals get out.
--
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