Why should I be governed?
This question has been selected due to the foundational nature of the question of how an individual or collection of individuals, originally free, come to be obligated or bound to obey the laws and commands of the state.
It opens a pathway to further study at A2. Discussions about political obligation are connected to issues explored in political philosophy and may also provide a context to further explore theories of moral philosophy in Unit 3.
It will also provide a relevant background to Plato’s
The Republic or Mill’s On Liberty in Unit 4.
Click on the sub-headings for more information.
The state of nature
• Different views of the condition of mankind in a ‘state of nature’: a war of all against all in which life is ‘nasty, brutish and short’ (Hobbes); a state in which men live together according to reason, in perfect freedom and equality without superiors to judge them (Locke).
• The benefits of political organisation: why it may be rational for individuals to submit to some form of authority which regulates conduct.
Political obligation and consent
• Consent as the basis of obligation: the legitimate political obligations of individuals are grounded in a considered, voluntary and binding act of consent. The concepts of hypothetical consent and tacit consent.
• The concepts of power, authority and legitimacy and the relationship between them. Whether legitimacy requires popular approval.
Disobedience and dissent
• The view that we can only be said to possess obligations if we have a guaranteed right of dissent; just grounds for dissent.
• Civil disobedience and direct action: the use of unlawful public conduct for political ends. The aims, methods and targets of civil disobedience and direct action. How either might be justified.