More recently, some political philosophers have claimed that when we take part in elections, we agree to comply with the government that emerges and the laws it enact. This looks more promising: we do at least have a free choice as to whether to vote or not, and there would be no point in holding elections unless people recognized the government that emerged as legitimate. But unfortunately there still seems to be a gap between voting and registering your consent. What if you deeply disagree with both parties, but vote because you think that one is slightly less bad than the other? Or what if you think that although you have in a sense consented to the overall package of policies that the winning party has announced in its manifesto, there are a few items that you find quite repugnant - and you had no chance to vote on these individually? Perhaps the voters' consent can help explain why government have legitimate authority, but not why individual citizens have an obligation to obey the law.