| Consent Of The Governed |
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Consent of the governed is a Political Theory that says a Government 's Legitimacy and Moral Right to use State Power is, or ought to be, derived from the People or Society over which that power is exercised. This theory of "consent" is historically contrasted to the Divine Right Of Kings and has often been invoked against the legitimacy of Colonialism . The United States was the first nation of modern times to break away from the colonial rule of a distant Monarch by invoking "consent of the governed" as a right in the United States Declaration Of Independence . Today, consent of the governed is a presumptive aspect of all democracies. Indeed, any government that cannot plausibly claim to rule by consent of the governed tends not to enjoy the benefit of the doubt about their legitimacy, either by their own people or the peoples of other nations. A more theoretical, if less constrained, approach to the "consent" doctrine relies on the notion of a Social Contract between the government and the people. In a modern Democracy , few, if any, of "the people" have an opportunity to actually consent to such a "contract." However, a proponent of government legitimacy under this theory would contend that each adult implicitly provides their consent by remaining in their country of birth versus emigrating, and those who Immigrate indicate their consent by explicitly agreeing to abide by the constitutional or statutory laws of the country that allows their entry. By this logic, consent of the governed is a presumed fact for any government that does not restrict emigration. SEE ALSO REFERENCES
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