"you choose by their leave": Portugal, o mau aluno de Pettit
"you may be dominated - you may be subject to the will of others - without suffering any actual interference. This will happen to the extent that others can impose their will, should they take against your pattern of choice, but do not do so because of being content with your choices. What you choose in such a situation, you choose by their leave. It may be sheer luck that you do not attract their interference, and that you enjoy their leave to choose as you do, or it may be the product of a self-censoring strategy; you may shape your choices so as to keep them sweet".
José Luis Martí in A political philosophy in public life - civic republicanism in Zapatero's Spain