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Tacit Consent Is Right Essay

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Wolff (1970) defines a state as a group of persons who have the right to exercise supreme authority within a territory, over a population. He proposes In the Defense of Anarchism, men are autonomous, as higher degrees of autonomy is achieved, a man will resist the claim that states have authority over him. This illustrates the puzzle of Political obligation and can be explained through the appeal to consent. Hood (2016, pp10) mentioned in a lecture “An individual’s consent is a form of command. Therefore their agreement is an expression of their autonomous will.” We can derive from this that our consent is consistent with our autonomy, reconciling the concepts. In this essay I will attempt to show that consent does not justify UK state power. …show more content…

In my opinion and people will generally agree that it is inescapable we are residing in a particular state since birth, by considering Locke’s view, it seems to imply that by living under the state, you automatically consent to the government and the "enjoyments" of benefits such as the public goods I mentioned previously are regarded as a sign of tacit consent. Nonetheless, children may not have understood the terms of consent; therefore giving consent at this stage would seem inappropriate. Furthermore, regardless of whether individuals have understood what giving consent involves, dissent seems to be difficult to express as it would mean forfeiting ownership of land and right to use public goods, etc. or as Hume (1748) puts it Can we seriously say that a poor peasant or artisan has a free choice to leave his country, when he knows no foreign language or manners, and lives from day to day, by the small wages which he acquires? These consequences are detrimental to the individual, since without housing, healthcare etc. we are unable to fulfill basic human needs. Therefore, Locke’s suggestion certainly does not satisfy any of the five

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