Locke, Lenin, and Local Power: Claremont’s Test of Consent

When citizen consent is limited to elections, institutions that look democratic can operate like disciplined clubs, which is why elite circulation and oligarchic drift need counterweights.

Two classic blueprints for political organization still shape local government. John Locke’s account of democracy treats office as a revocable trust grounded in majority consent and limited powers. Vladimir Lenin’s democratic centralism permits internal debate before a decision, then enforces unity afterward. Claremont’s School Board and City Council are not Bolshevik cells, yet when consent is expressed only at the ballot box, both bodies can tilt toward centralism in practice. The remedy is not theatrical outrage; it is better channels for consent and friction against agenda monopolies.

TLDR

• Locke stresses consent of the governed, majority rule, and limits on power, while Lenin stresses internal debate followed by obligatory unity.
• Claremont’s School Board and City Council meet openly and are elected, which fits Locke in form, but consent between elections is weak.
• Agenda control and information asymmetry create conditions that mimic democratic centralism.
• Pareto’s circulation of elites and Michels’s iron law explain why small circles consolidate power even without bad actors.
• Practical guardrails can increase real consent without paralyzing government.

What Locke Means by Democracy

Locke’s Second Treatise argues that legitimate authority rests on the consent of the governed, expressed through majority rule, and constrained by limited, delegated powers. Consent is not a one-time gift; it is an ongoing condition for legitimacy. Majority decision rules exist because unanimous consent in large societies is rarely possible. See the text for the classic articulation of consent and majority rule in Chapter 8 and related sections of the Treatise (Gutenberg edition; see also a modernized text at Early Modern Texts for readability). Locke’s key point is simple. Public power is entrusted for public ends. When rulers are insulated from accountability or when law is not public and prospective, consent collapses in substance even if elections continue.

That frame matters locally. If citizens lack any binding input outside of periodic elections, the link between current public will and current public decisions weakens. Locke would say that does not void legitimacy, but it increases the burden on officials to preserve publicity of reasons, clear procedures, and real replaceability at the next election.

What Lenin Means by Democratic Centralism

Lenin’s model is an organizational method, not a general theory of freedom. Democratic centralism permits open debate inside the party before a decision, then requires unity in action afterward. Members are expected to accept discipline and refrain from public dissent once a line is set. The logic is tactical coherence. For a canonical statement in practice, see Lenin’s analysis of party rules in One Step Forward, Two Steps Back (Marxists Internet Archive). For a neutral definition, see Britannica’s overview of democratic centralism, which highlights the combination of internal discussion and external unity (Britannica).

Translated to non-party institutions, the centralism part shows up when agenda control is tight, information is filtered by a leadership core, and unity after a vote is enforced in ways that make post-decision dissent irrelevant. The democratic part is limited if participation is confined to insiders or to the pre-vote stage.

Claremont School Board as a Test Case

Formal Lockean features. The School Board is elected and meets in public. It posts agendas, schedules, and meeting links, and it maintains pages for policies, bylaws, and minutes, all of which are accessible through SAU 6’s site (SAU 6, Claremont board page). The Right to Know law, New Hampshire’s open meetings statute, requires public access to meetings and timely minutes, which gives citizens visibility into decisions, if not control over them (NH RSA 91 A, General Court). These are Lockean signals. Decisions are made by visible majorities under public rules.

Practical drift toward centralism. In practice, consent between elections is weak. Public comment windows are not binding, and Board members usually decide after staff briefings, legal advice, and committee work that the public does not fully see. During the 2025 deficit crisis, the Board and its advisers controlled the agenda, triaged options, and executed painful steps while the public watched. See contemporary reporting that confirms the size and timing of the fiscal hole and the rapid sequence of corrective moves (NHJournal, Sept. 25, 2025). This is not a moral indictment. It is an institutional pattern. When information is complex and time is short, decision rights cluster. That creates a family resemblance to democratic centralism, debate before a vote, unity after, little leverage for outsiders until the next election.

Inference, labeled. Based on standard New Hampshire practice and the Board’s posted materials, it is reasonable to infer that public comment time is not a real time negotiation and that Board deliberation is shaped by staff and counsel briefings even when not fully visible on the public agenda. That inference rests on RSA 91 A’s design, which grants access to meetings and records but does not compel dialogue or allow citizens to place items directly on a school board agenda between elections.

Claremont City Council as a Test Case

Charter basics. Claremont operates under a council manager form. Councilors are elected every two years, meetings are open, and the schedule is regular. The official page confirms structure, cadence, and points of contact (City of Claremont, City Council). These are Lockean features, visible rules plus replaceability.

Consent limited to elections. In 2025, voters faced two charter amendments. One would have added a binding citizen referendum process. The official tally shows that both amendments failed, which left no binding voter referendum mechanism in the charter going forward (City of Claremont, Election Tally Sheet, Nov. 4, 2025; see pre election coverage of the proposals in Valley News for context (Valley News, Oct. 29, 2025)). The Council structure remains open yet insulated between elections. Citizens can speak, petition, and persuade, but cannot compel a popular vote to override a Council decision.

Practical drift toward centralism. As with any small legislative body that handles technical matters, agenda control by leadership and staff expertise can make open meetings feel like ratification ceremonies. That effect does not require ill will. It arises from information differences and from the need to close ranks after votes so that the city can act.

Comparative Analysis

Consent and replaceability. Both bodies meet the Lockean minimums, open meetings and periodic elections. Both, however, confine binding consent to election days, which weakens the link between current citizen preferences and current policy. That gap grows during crises, when the governing core must act before the next vote.

Agenda control and unity. Lenin’s combination of debate before a decision and unity after it maps onto any body where the agenda is set by a small group, the information diet is controlled by staff and counsel, and the public has no binding channel between elections. The form is not authoritarian, the effect is similar, tight unity after decisions and limited leverage for outsiders.

Two short primers for the theory backdrop.

Pareto’s circulation of elites argues that small groups always rule, and that over time one elite replaces another as the mix of temperaments and skills shifts. In his terms, healthy systems manage a rotation between lion like stabilizers and fox like innovators. When rotation stalls, an ossified group hangs on until a rival group takes over. See succinct treatments in Britannica’s entry on Pareto and elite theory (Britannica, Pareto; Britannica, Elite theory). The insight is descriptive, not cynical, circulation happens in democracies and autocracies alike.

Michels’s iron law of oligarchy claims that complex organizations tend to concentrate power in a leadership core as a matter of efficiency. The larger and more technical the agenda, the more members delegate, and the more leaders consolidate. Michels wrote about parties, yet the mechanism applies to boards and councils as well. See the classic text, Political Parties, for the original formulation and its logic of organizational necessity (Archive.org, Michels; an alternative text scan is available from McMaster University’s archive (HET, Michels PDF)).

Practical Guardrails for More Real Consent

These ideas do not assume bad faith. They assume human nature, limited time, and information gaps.

• Citizen agenda rights, with limits. Allow a modest number of voter signatures to place one actionable item on a School Board or Council agenda each month, with a staff memo that presents options and costs. This is a lighter lift than a full referendum, and it respects capacity constraints.
• Structured deliberation nights. Convert one meeting per quarter into a deliberative hearing on a single issue. Require pro and con testimony, a staff rebuttal, member questions, and a short list of alternatives with tradeoffs.
• Minority placement power. Let a minority of members, for example two councilors or two board members, place one item per month on the agenda. This breaks majority gatekeeping without hijacking calendars.
• Chair and committee rotation. Term limit chairs to one year and rotate committee leadership. Rotation prevents the slow hardening of a single inner circle.
• Vacancy transparency. When filling midterm vacancies, use public interview questions and a posted scoring rubric. Publish all submissions and scores within 48 hours of a vote.
• Standing budget advisory. Create an independent advisory group with fixed, staggered terms, charged to publish a one page variance and risk note each month.
• Right to Know plus response. RSA 91 A already mandates openness. Add an internal rule that after public comment the chair selects at least three questions for on the record replies during the same meeting, even if answers are preliminary. This keeps debate from dying at the microphone (NH RSA 91 A).
• Crisis protocol. Require a public crisis memo within seven days of any declared financial emergency. The memo must list the decision calendar, who controls what, and when updates will occur, with a simple dashboard. See recent reporting on the deficit for the kind of event that triggers such a protocol (NHJournal).

Conclusion

Locke offers a test of legitimacy, consent, publicity of reason, and limited, delegated power. Lenin offers a test of cohesion, debate before a decision, unity after. Claremont’s School Board and City Council pass the Lockean tests on paper, and, in operation, sometimes resemble democratic centralism between elections. That resemblance follows from ordinary features of complex governance, agenda control and information asymmetry, which Pareto and Michels predicted long ago.

Two pilot reforms would make the biggest difference, fast. First, adopt a quarterly structured deliberation night for both bodies, with a requirement to present options and tradeoffs before final votes. Second, add minority placement power for one agenda item per month. Neither idea cripples decision making. Both widen voice and reduce the need for citizen vetoes. Add the longer term items as capacity allows. The goal is not to punish insiders, it is to thicken consent between elections so that democratic forms ring true in practice.