BOOK III Principles of Government CHAPTER IV OF POLITICAL AUTHORITY Common deliberation the true foundation of government - proved from the equal claims of mankind - from the nature of our faculties from the object of government - from the effects of common deliberation. - Delegation vindicatcd. - Difference between the doctrine here maintained and that of a social contract. - Remark. HAVING rejected the hypotheses that have most generally been advanced as to the rational basis of a political authority, let us inquire whether we may not arrive at the same object by a simple investigation of the obvious reason of the case, without refinement of system or fiction of process. Government then being first supposed necessary for the welfare of mankind, the most important principle that can be imagined relative to its structure seems to be this; that, as government is a transaction in the nam...