John Locke Tacit Consent

In this essay, I will argue that Locke’s notion of consent, especially consent of the governed makes revolution more likely to occur within society. Locke promotes the right of the people to overthrow leaders who betray them. Furthermore, the executive and legislative entities coexist autonomously to keep each other in check (this can be seen as an early form of checks-and-balances). Locke insists that if a leader breaks the community’s trust, the people can and should replace him immediately. Correspondingly, if the legislative body does not attain the needs of the people, it should be dissolved and replaced with whatever form of government the people think best.
Tacit consent is a form of consent when an individual lives there or owns property within the area, then he/she have tacitly consented to the burdens that the government inflicts on him/her. For example, simply by walking along the walkways of a country a person gives tacit consent to the government and agrees to obey it while living in its territory. Tacit consent can also be seen as a moral obligation to our government because all people are born under some form of government. In the article, “Tacit Consent and Political Obligation” Simmons (1976) explains the three types of consent which are as follows: promises, written contracts, and acts of
378, section 166)." In these cases, it can be difficult for the people to seize the power back from the new offending leader because then the sovereign has taken advantage of what is a right, which is in actuality a trust. In the article, “A Note on John Locke's Concept of Consent” Waldman (1958) examines the historical aspects of government authority and the impacts it has on consent within citizens, which correlates back to trust within the legislative and executive branches of government, especially in countries that are