Tacit Concept of Consent in Locke's Two Treatises of Government: A Note on Citizens, Travellers, and Patriarchalism

Abstract

John Dunn's influential and compelling interpretation of the political thought of John Locke1 has solved a number of persistent problems in the interpretation of Locke's thought by demonstrating the dubiety of considering the problems as in any way issues for Locke. By showing the limited nature of the role of consent in Locke's political thought (that of persuading his readers that they might, in extremis, be entitled to resist their government), Dunn points our attention in the direction of Locke's and his contemporaries' preoccupations rather than towards our own, and those of Locke's successors in America or radical England.2 There remain, however, certain logical lacunae in Dunn's interpretation and consequently in Locke's argument so understood. Moreover Locke himself gives occasional textual license to the view that the role of consent in his theory is greater than that suggested by Dunn in his attempt to rescue Locke from hopeless confusion. It is this equivocation over consent which I wish to examine. I want to suggest that, even on the most charitable interpretation, there are holes in Locke's argument that can only be explained by attributing to him aspects of that patriarchalism which was the major object of his attack. In his discussion of patriarchal power Locke is concerned to disprove Filmer's claim that the accident of paternity imposes on individuals indefeasible obligations of absolute obedience to the existing ruler of a political society. Instead, he claims, individuals are only obligated to obey those governments to which they consent, and they are obligated only as a result of that consent. Locke then proceeds to his classic, if confused, discussion of the nature and circumstances of consent. Express consent binds one absolutely to a government until such time as it exceeds its legitimate power.3 Tacit consent is said to exist where individuals such as itinerant or resident