The problem, as we now know, is far more complex than the older thinkers imagined.

Yet Locke's insistence on consent and natural rights has received new meaning from each critical period of history since he wrote.

The theory of consent is vital because without the provision of channels for its administrative expression, men tend to become the creatures of a power ignorant at once and careless of their will.

Active consent on the part of the mass of men emphasizes the contingent nature of all power and is essential to the full realization of freedom; and the purpose of the State, in any sense save the mere satisfaction of material appetite, remains, without it, unfulfilled.

The concept of natural right is most closely related to this position.