It critically depends on what you mean by "impose", I think it's a well known lesson by now (and actually very low-status and cliché to bring up) that masses can be convinced of anything, so the deciding factor is often who has the most efficient consent-manufacturing machines.

You could argue that consent, as traditionally understood, doesn't even meaningfully exist in a population above a certain threshold (say 10^6). Consent implies knowledge and understanding, in a population of 10^6 and up, in even a moderately complex environment, there is no way even 1/10 of the population understand more than their own very narrow slice of what their environment and society are doing.