I think what this means is basically that the colonists believed that the power the government held came from the people they governed, and with their consent and allowance. So without the people consenting to and with the government, the government's power grew smaller and smaller. This was exemplified in the case of the colonists breaking free of England and King George's rule and forming the United States when they felt they did not have enough representation and too high of taxes. Their voice was not taken into enough consideration by those that were governing them, and so the government's power over them lessened and lessened until they had no power at all. Of course, this isn't the case with all governments unfortunately. This question makes me think of dictatorships where the people gave no "consent" and had no say in how they were ruled even down to whether or not they voted, but still the government's power over them lingered until the government's eventual downfall, usually by intervention from another government or by death of the dictator.
