60% Say Federal Government Does Not Have the Consent of the Governed

Even with Americans poised to pick a president and one-third of the nation’s senators, most voters continue to feel the federal government does not have the official approval of its citizenry. One of the central tenets of the Declaration of Independence is that “governments derive their only just powers from the consent of the governed,” but just 25% of Likely U.S. Voters think the federal government today has that consent. Sixty percent (60%) believe the federal government does not have the consent of the governed. Fifteen percent (15%) are not sure. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

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The survey of 1,000 Likely Voters was conducted on October 21-22, 2012 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.