On the latest episode of Legal Spirits , I speak with legal scholar Steve Smith (University of San Diego) about a foundational principle of American law and politics: "the consent of the governed."

That phrase, which goes back to the Declaration of Independence, has long served as a central justification for our constitutional order. Our government is legitimate, we tell ourselves, because, as a free people, we have agreed to it. But in a society that is politically polarized, can consent still do the work that is required of it? Can we continue to ground legal and political authority in a story that fewer and fewer Americans believe?

Drawing on his new paper, The Collapse of Consent , Steve and I explore how the idea of consent has shifted over time—from a condition that limited a gover

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