Rethinking Political Obligation

What are the grounds for and limits to obedience to the state?Dorota Mokrosinska presents a fresh analysis of the most influential theories of political obligation and develops a novel approach to thi

Do we have any obligations to our political society? If so, how should they be understood and explained? Political philosophers since Socrates have grappled with these questions, and have reached a di

How should we understand the relationship between citizens and governments, and what are the obligations of citizens? In this substantially revised new edition of an influential text, John Horton chal

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

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 t

Time and 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 ou

Political obligation refers to the moral obligation of citizens to obey the law of their state and to the existence, nature, and justification of a special relationship between a government and its co

Political obligation is concerned with the clash between the individual’s claim to self-governance and the right of the state to claim obedience. It is a central and ancient problem in political philo

Political obligation is concerned with the clash between the individual’s claim to self-governance and the right of the state to claim obedience. It is a central and ancient problem in political

For years, scholars hypothesized about what Islamists might do if they ever came to power. Now, they have answers: confusing ones. In the Levant, ISIS established a government by brute force, implemen

For years, scholars hypothesized about what Islamists might do if they ever came to power. Now, they have answers: confusing ones. In the Levant, ISIS established a government by brute force, implemen

According to the standard interpretation, Hobbes argues that subjects have binding political obligations because the sanctions for non-compliance provided by the law give them sufficient reason to obe

Rethinking the Political demonstrates that the College de Sociologie's quest to create a new place for the sacred in modern collective life ostensibly entailed avoiding the theorization of both aesthe

It is commonly held that Aristotle's views on politics have little relevance to the preoccupations of modern political theory with authority and obligation. Andres Rosler's original study argues that,

The question of why some people should obey others, though easily settled in neo-liberal political theory by who has the biggest gun, has yet to be answered within the liberal tradition, says Klosko (

What sort of commitments do human beings have good reason to acknowledge to one another and to the social units (family, tribe, state) to which they belong? Is the sovereign authority of the state anywhere or everywhere a true moral authority, or is it simply a coercive capacity of varying force, reposing on a range of effectively touted false beliefs? What political obligations, if any, do men truly have? The central questions of political philosophy have not lessened in practical urgency or in theoretical difficulty in recent decades. But they have become increasingly hard to address in an intellectually serious fashion and modern thinkers have become increasingly reluctant even to try to address them in such a fashion. Mr Dunn's collection of essays records an attempt to recapture the sense and character of these questions by approaching them from an unusually broad variety of perspectives.