Three Anarchical Fallacies
An Essay on Political Authority

This book exposes fallacies inspired by the idea that coercion seems inseparable from government and in doing so shows that living in a just state remains a worthy ideal.

William A. Edmundson (Author)

9780521624541, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 28 September 1998

206 pages, 2 tables
23.8 x 16.1 x 1.9 cm, 0.476 kg

'The 'fallacies' in the title are three assumptions which stand as obstacles to finding a successful account of state legitimacy. Edmundson examines these assumptions in impressive detail, deploying interesting, if controversial, arguments for rejecting them.' Political Studies

How is a legitimate state possible? Obedience, coercion and intrusion are three ideas that seem inseparable from all government and seem to render state authority presumptively illegitimate. This book exposes three fallacies inspired by these ideas and in doing so challenges assumptions shared by liberals, libertarians, cultural conservatives, moderates and Marxists. In three clear and tightly argued essays William Edmundson dispels these fallacies and shows that living in a just state remains a worthy ideal. This is an important book for all philosophers, political scientists and legal theorists as well as other readers interested in the views of Rawls, Dworkin and Nozick, many of whose central ideas are subjected to rigorous critique.

Acknowledgements
Introduction
Part I. The Fallacious Argument from the Failure of Political Obligation: 1. Legitimacy and the duty to obey
2. The correlativity thesis
3. Legitimate political authority
Part II. The 'Law is Coercive' Fallacy: 4. The concept of coercion
5. Political theory without coercion
6. Coercion Redivivus
Part III. The Inner Sphere of Privacy Fallacy: 7. The private sphere
8. The moral and the social
9. The social and the political
Conclusion: the state for what?
Index.

Subject Areas: Jurisprudence & philosophy of law [LAB], Social & political philosophy [HPS]