consent of the governed

Cultural

A condition urged by many as a requirement for legitimate government: that the authority of a government should depend on the consent of the people, as expressed by votes in elections. (See Declaration of Independence, democracy, and John Locke.)

Example Sentences

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Representation limits this tension by claiming that acts undertaken with the consent of the governed are really their own decisions.

From The Wall Street Journal

An emperor or king who rules not by the consent of the governed, but by divine right.

From Salon

These included such ideas as the fundamental equality of all human beings, the view that government derives its authority from the consent of the governed, and the existence of those “certain unalienable rights” mentioned in the U.S.

From Salon

All of the procedure, the Constitution, everything really has to always go back to be checked against the idea that our government has the consent of the governed, that we are actually the sovereign.

From Slate

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023