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- Title
AN INTRODUCTION TO THE PROBLEM OF AUTHORITY.
- Authors
HUEMER, MICHAEL
- Abstract
By general consensus, there is a presumption against coercion: Only in a relatively narrow range of circumstances may an individual or group deploy physical force, or threats of physical force, against other individuals or groups. However, these circumstances do not include most of the circumstances in which governments actually deploy force. In other words, the typical behavior of governments is behavior that would be considered unacceptable, if adopted by any non-governmental person or group. This happens because the government is thought to have a special kind of authority (political authority), which private individuals and groups lack. The central contention of this paper is that there is nothing special about the state that explains why it would have authority over everyone else. The state, therefore, has only political power, not political authority. That is, it has the ability to coerce other agents and to take their resources, but it has no more moral right to do so than any other agent has. This view leads to a libertarian political philosophy.
- Subjects
POLITICAL philosophy; AUTHORITY; POWER (Social sciences); LEGITIMACY of governments
- Publication
Procesos de Mercado, 2019, Vol 16, Issue 1, p13
- ISSN
1697-6797
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.52195/pm.v16i1.35