Usurpation, unjust seizure of authority without due bestowal by the law.

Just as a conquest can be called a foreign usurpation , the usurpation of the government can be called an internal conquest . The difference is that a domestic usurper can never have justice on his side: a conqueror may, on the condition that he operates within the confines stipulated by justice, and that he does not seize possessions rightfully owned by others.

When the rules of fairness are observed, a change of leaders is certainly possible, but not a change in the form or the laws of government. For to exercise power beyond the limits of law and justice is to join tyranny with usurpation .

In all civilised governments, an important element of the form of government, and one of the basic privileges of the people, is to choose those who will govern. Anarchy does not consist solely of having no form of government; it also consists of the absence of deciding the persons upon whom power is bestowed. In this way, true states have not just an established form of government, but also laws that grant certain persons public authority. Anyone who comes to exercise any part of a society’s power via means others than those stipulated by the law cannot expect to be obeyed, even in the case of his maintaining the form of government, as the law has not given him permission to enjoy power. Put simply, the domination of a similar usurper and his descendants would never become legitimate until the people had given their consent. Their power would remain usurped, and therefore illegitimate, until that point.