Political Obligation and Democratic Community

Political Obligation and Democratic Community
Author: Daniel Alan Koltonski
Publisher:
Total Pages: 353
Release: 2011
Genre:
ISBN:
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I argue that citizens of a suitably democratic community will have an important duty to uphold their community's laws, even those laws they reasonably think to be unjust, because upholding the law is required if they are to respect their fellows as free and equal citizens. The version of the problem of political obligation that I address, roughly put, is to explain how laws may bind citizens of a community without threatening their status as free persons. This version of the problem must be addressed because, on the one hand, the duty to uphold the law, as a duty to obey (or defer to) another, seems incompatible with freedom, but, on the other, the aspiration of a community of free and equal citizens-the aspiration motivating much of liberal political philosophy-is only realizable if free citizens can have such a duty. I argue here that the persistence of deep but reasonable disagreement between persons about justice requires that an authoritative scheme of laws govern them. However, a law can be authoritative only if it is enacted in a manner that respects all citizens as free and equal, including those citizens who reasonably disagree with that law. Democratic procedures, I argue, are therefore necessary to achieve authoritative law; but, importantly, they are not sufficient, for a problem of freedom still remains. Drawing on the results of an argument about deference in close personal friendships, I argue that democratic procedures result in authoritative law only when those procedures are embedded within a democratic community whose citizens are bound, in their political choices, by genuine ties of civic friendship.

Political Obligations

Political Obligations
Author: George Klosko
Publisher: OUP Oxford
Total Pages: 276
Release: 2005-03-10
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0191531308
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Political Obligations provides a full defense of a theory of political obligation based on the principle of fairness (or fair play), which is widely viewed as the strongest theory of obligation currently available. The work responds to the most important objections to the principle of fairness, and extends a theory based on fairness into a developed 'multiple principle' theory of obligation. In order to establish the need for such a theory, Political Obligations criticizes alternative theories of obligation based on a natural duty of justice and 'reformist' consent, and critically examines the non-state theories of libertarian and philosophical anarchists. The work breaks new ground by providing the first in-depth study of popular attitudes towards political obligations and how the state itself views them. The attitudes of ordinary citizens are explored through small focus groups, while the 'self image of the state' in regard to the obligations of its citizens is studied through examination of judicial decisions in three different democratic countries.

The Problem of Political Obligation

The Problem of Political Obligation
Author: Carole Pateman
Publisher: Chichester ; New York : Wiley
Total Pages: 232
Release: 1979
Genre: Political Science
ISBN:
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"Most recent discussions of the political authority of the liberal democratic state and the political obligation of its citizens are based on one of two assumptions: that general problems about political obligation have now been resolved or are easily resolvable; or that no such problems exist. One aim of this book is to show that the latter assumption is unfounded and that political obligation is inherently problematic. My larger aim, which is both more substantive and more controversial, is to show that political obligation in the liberal democratic state constitutes an insoluble problem; insoluble because political obligation cannot be given expression within the context of liberal democratic institutions. The problem of political obligation can be solved only through the development of the theory and practice of participatory or self-managing democracy." [Introduction].

On Political Obligation

On Political Obligation
Author: Paul Harris
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 278
Release: 2019-11-19
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1000706427
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First published in 1990. The individual’s obligation to obey the law, the state and the government is a fundamental part of contemporary political theory. The contributors to this volume, drawn from a variety of disciplines including philosophy, political science and law, take a fresh look at the dilemmas of political obligation. They discuss the extent to which we should allow the need for conformity to override individual liberties, and ask whether individualism is indeed feasible without a highly developed sense of the ‘public interest’ or the ‘common good‘. The contrast between individualism and communitarianism is examined throughout the book. The contributors also look at the various means through which the state can coerce or persuade the individual to be obedient. The emphasis throughout this collection is on the substantive problems themselves, rather than on the way these issues have been addressed in the history of political thought. The book offers a number of different perspectives on political obligation, and will be valuable to students of moral, political, social and legal philosophy.

Social Contract and Political Obligation

Social Contract and Political Obligation
Author: Peter J. McCormick
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 360
Release: 2019-11-21
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1000706575
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First published in 1987. This study is concerned with the problem of political obligation, the normative question of why one should obey the law, and with social contract thought as an answer to this question. It is entitled a critique, but the critique is not of social contract theory as such, but rather of the "orthodox" treatment of contract that yields so readily to the rough handling and easy rejection that is the normal lot of contractarianism in contemporary treatments. In its place will be suggested a reinterpretation of contract that sees it as making different assumptions and requiring different premises, and that is proof against many of the orthodox refutations of social contract theory; the reinterpretation is thus in the nature of a vindication. First, from an examination of the most commonly cited champions of contractarianism (namely Hobbes, Locke and Rousseau) will be derive a reinterpretation of contract in the form of a new model or syllogism, the features of which will be brought out by contrasting it first with the contemporary ideas of John Rawls and then with the orthodox model itself. Democratic consent theory, as the heir to the remnants of the orthodox model, will be examined, and the ideas of T. H. Green will be considered as embodying an important feature of contractarianism omitted or ignored by the orthodox model (and hence by democratic theory.) Finally, the new model of contract will be suggested as a potentially useful approach to the problem of political obligation in the modern context. This title will be of interest to student of politics and philosophy.

Political and Legal Obligation

Political and Legal Obligation
Author: J. Roland Pennock
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 616
Release: 2017-07-12
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1351499238
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At a point in history marked by dramatic challenges to the existing political and social order, the question of legal and political obligation emerges as a focal point of international concern. Amid the clamor for radical change in the established order, theories of political obligation demand renewed examination. In this volume, eighteen leading specialists in the legal, philosophical, and political science aspects of the question offer their views on this timely topic. Part I examines the nature of moral, legal, and political obligation. The first essay presents a set of definitions that denies the very existence of obligation. While the second essay disagreeing particularly with respect to the relationship of political to moral tenets, and the third discussing the highly complex interplay between law and morality. The following essay approaches obligation as existing in the context of an established political and legal system and stresses the importance of evaluating the negative consequences of challenges to the law as well as those arising from the absence of challenges. The next paper maintains that political obligation is so complex that its very existence depends upon rational deliberation in particular contexts. The fifth, explores four significant theories but accepts only the one based on the broadest definition of obligation. While the final essay in this part considers political obligation a unique and generalized moral obligation. Part II takes up the conditions of obligation and of obedience. The first essay in this part discusses the conditions necessary to generate a "felt obligation." The second paper, concentrates on exposing key obstacles to empirical proof that behavior is or is not motivated by "felt obligation." While the third draws upon a large body of literature and court decisions dealing with compliance to the law. The forth essay is a case study of Rome probes the role of obligation during that city's seven cent

Political Obligation in Its Historical Context

Political Obligation in Its Historical Context
Author: John Dunn
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 370
Release: 2002-04-11
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780521891592
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Mr Dunn addresses the central questions of political philosophy from an unusually broad variety of perspectives.

Obligation and the Body Politic

Obligation and the Body Politic
Author: Joseph Tussman
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Total Pages: 176
Release: 1960
Genre: Political Science
ISBN:
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The Civic Minimum

The Civic Minimum
Author: Stuart Gordon White
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Total Pages: 301
Release: 2003
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0198295057
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This text reconsiders the principles of economic citizenship appropriate to a democratic society, and explores the radical implications of these principles for public policy. According to White, justice demands that economic co-operation satisfy a standard of fair reciprocity.

The Temporality of Political Obligation

The Temporality of Political Obligation
Author: Justin Chandler Mueller
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 201
Release: 2015-12-22
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 131742641X
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The Temporality of Political Obligation offers a critique and reconceptualization of the ways in which our political obligations – what we owe to political authorities and communities, and the reasons why we ought to obey their rules – have been traditionally conceptualized, justified, and contested. Drawing from theories of time and temporality, Justin Mueller demonstrates some of the unacknowledged assumptions and theoretical blind spots shared among these ostensibly opposed positions, and the problems and contradictions that this neglect of time poses. Enriching the literature on the philosophers Henri Bergson and Gilles Deleuze, Mueller demonstrates how their theoretical frameworks on time can be used to analyze a political problem that is usually confined to the concerns of normative liberal democratic theory. Politically, this book provides readers with the means to better identify and analyze the diverse temporalities they encounter in everyday life, and better understand their experiences of them. A welcomed and timely read which will be of interest to scholars involved in recent efforts to engage with the social and political dimensions and consequences of time and temporality.