ABSTRACT
When government conforms to this pattern, it can be properly said, though in a loose sense, to be 'government by consent’—'not because individuals ever personally agreed to accept it, but because it is sensitive to public opinion... and does not have to stifle opposition by force'.34 But these institutional criteria are not deducible, in a strict sense, from the criteria for political authority and obligation enunciated by the formal theory of consent. The latter are completely general, and cannot strictly entail anything for any particular situation. We shall argue, however, in the next chapter, that any institutions which satisfy these criteria of substance are more likely than other types to satisfy the formal criteria also.
