What makes a government legitimate? Arthur Isak Applbaum rigorously argues that the greatest threat to democracies today is not loss of basic rights or despotism. It is the tyranny of unreason: domination of citizens by incoherent, inconstant, incontinent rulers. A government that cannot govern itself cannot legitimately govern others.
Author(s): Arthur Isak Applbaum
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Year: 2019
Language: English
Pages: 305
City: Cambridge, Mass
Copyright
Contents
Introduction
Part I. Substance and Normative Power
1. Legitimacy in a Bastard Kingdom
I. From Kosovo to Palm Beach County
II. Descriptive and Normative Legitimacy
III. Word, Concept, and Conception
IV. Tyrants without Title and Tyrants by Practice
V. Against Conceptual Proceduralism
VI. Against Normative Proceduralism
VII. Legitimacy without the Consent of the Governed
VIII. From the Actual Egg to the Middle of a Possible Thing
2. Legitimacy without the Duty to Obey
I. Must Legitimacy Entail Duty?
II. Legitimacy as a Hohfeldian Power
III. An Objection from Overridden Duties
IV. Two Objections from Reduction
V. Beachowner and Clamdigger
VI. Motorist and the Long Red Light
VII. A Holmsean Objection
VIII. Distinguishing Power from Permission
IX. On Immunity
X. What If Everyone Did What?
Part II. Free Group Agency
3. All Foundings Are Forced
I. Claiming Legitimacy in Libya
II. Free Group Agency
III. Constitution and Conscription
Constitution
Conscription
IV. Group Agency and Political Legitimacy
V. Constitution and Conscription in the Libyan Revolution
Constitution by Meshed Aims and Plans
Constitution by Repre senta tion
Constitution by Procedure
Conscription by Fair Play
VI. Constituting the Legitimate Representative of the Libyan People
Conscription by Consent?
Conscription by Practical Necessity
VII. Are Legitimate Foundings Pos sible?
4. Forcing a People to Be Free
I. Operation Iraqi Freedom
II. Mill’s Mistake
III. Is Forced Freedom Impossible?
Forcing a People to Be FREE
FORCING a People to Be Free
Forcing a PEOPLE to Be Free
IV. What is Paternalism?
V. Paternalizing a People
VI. Why is Free Group Agency So Morally Important?
VII. Can Subsets of an Unfree People Be Free?
VIII. Forcing Individuals to Be a Free People
IX. Is Intervention a Duty?
X. How Free is Free Enough?
Part III. Inhumanity, Despotism, and Wantonism
5. The Three Tyrannies
I. Ideals and Thresholds
II. Democratic Ideals and Thresholds
III. Democratic Puzzles
IV. Three Ways for Legitimate Law to Misfire
The Lithian Stone
Dominated by a Stone?
What Makes the Stone Law?
The Legitimate Reading of the Law
6. Despotism
I. Is Political Participation Necessary for Legitimacy?
II. Do Deviations from Direct Majority Rule Threaten Legitimacy?
Majority Rule
Direct Participation
III. Which Inequalities of Power Threaten Legitimacy?
IV. Do Outcome-Sensitive Voting Rules Threaten Legitimacy?
V. Does Money in Politics Threaten Legitimacy?
VI. Does Legislative Independence Threaten Legitimacy?
7. Wantonism
I. Does Incontinence Threaten Legitimacy?
II. Does Unreflectiveness Threaten Legitimacy?
III. Does Dishonesty Threaten Legitimacy?
IV. Does Incoherence Threaten Legitimacy?
V. How Can We Pull Ourselves Together?
Conclusion
Notes
Introduction
1. Legitimacy in a Bastard Kingdom
2. Legitimacy without the Duty to Obey
3. All Foundings Are Forced
4. Forcing a People to Be Free
5. The Three Tyrannies
6. Despotism
7. Wantonism
Conclusion
Acknowledgments
Index
