Pactum Subjectionis

Description

David Ellerman:

"many classical authorities defended non-democratic government if based on consent.

The social contract or constitution establishing a non-democratic government was traditionally called the pactum subjectionis, the pact of subjection wherein a people voluntarily alienated their right of self-government to some ruler or sovereign who would then rule the people as subjects, not citizens, and who would rule in his own name (i.e., not as a delegate, representative, or trustee of the people). In the history of democratic thought, the key distinction, that is often now overlooked, is between a voluntary constitution that alienates and transfers (translatio) the right of government from the people to a sovereign and a voluntary constitution that only establishes a relation of delegation, representation, or trust (concessio) between the people and the governors who would then only govern as the delegates, representatives, or trustees for the governed." (http://www.blog.ellerman.org/2010/03/why-is-non-democratic-government-wrong-involuntariness-or-treating-persons-as-things/)