The transmission theory of authority

Scholastic thinkers like Cardinal Cajetan, St. Robert Bellarmine, and Francisco Suárez developed what is sometimes called a “transmission theory” of governmental authority.  It holds that such authority ultimately comes from God, but is directly vested by him in the community as a whole, and then transmitted by it to some particular form of government (which may or may not be democratic).  Yves Simon offered an influential discussion of this theory in chapter 3 of his book Philosophy of Democratic Government.