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    A ruler can hold authority even when that authority cease... — Carmelics
    Home/Democracy & Governance
    HistoryEditSee Inverse

    A ruler can hold authority even when that authority ceases to be legitimate.

    Democracy & Governance
    ?Rate how convincing each reason is below to see the overall strength.
    1 reason for
    2 reasons against

    Reasons For

    1 perspective
    Reason for
    ?
    • 1.Kant distinguishes between legitimate authority and effective authority.
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    • 2.If the head of the civil state violates the obligation to enact only laws to which all individuals could consent, the authority becomes illegitimate.
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    • 3.Yet the head of state still holds authority despite this violation.
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    Reasons Against

    2 perspectives
    Reason against 1 of 2
    ?
    • 1.For Locke, authority is constituted by consent and dissolves when government systematically violates natural rights, leaving no residual power.
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    • 2.A ruler who loses legitimacy reverts to a state of war with the people, holding only coercive force, not authority in any normatively meaningful sense.
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    • 3.Conflating coercive power with authority equivocates on 'holds authority,' smuggling a descriptive claim into a normative framework.
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    Reason against 2 of 2
    ?
    • 1.Raz's service conception grounds authority entirely in its capacity to help subjects better conform to reasons that already apply to them.
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    • 2.When a ruler systematically violates the conditions that justify deference, the 'normal justification thesis' fails and the obligation to obey dissolves with it.
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    • 3.Without an obligation to obey grounded in better reason-compliance, 'authority' names no real normative relationship but merely de facto domination.
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    Topics

    Democracy & GovernanceSocial Contract

    Connections

    1 topic

    Justice & Punishment1 linked

    Related

    A ruler who loses legitimacy reverts to a state of war with the people, holding ...Conflating coercive power with authority equivocates on 'holds authority,' smugg...For Locke, authority is constituted by consent and dissolves when government sys...If the head of the civil state violates the obligation to enact only laws to whi...
    +5 moreShow less
    Kant distinguishes between legitimate authority and effective authority.Raz's service conception grounds authority entirely in its capacity to help subj...When a ruler systematically violates the conditions that justify deference, the ...Without an obligation to obey grounded in better reason-compliance, 'authority' ...Yet the head of state still holds authority despite this violation.

    Similar

    The ruler can govern the people effectively82%Actual exercise of power does not confer legitimate authority81%A good ruler will display restraint and moderation despite divinely ma...81%Yet the head of state still holds authority despite this violation.79%

    Source

    AI-extracted1/3 agreementValid
    SEP: legitimacy
    View source passageHide passage
    Kant, unlike Hobbes, recognizes the difference between legitimate and effective authority. For the head of the civil state is under an obligation to obey public reason and to enact only laws to which all individuals could consent. If he violates this obligation, however, he still holds authority, even if his authority ceases to be legitimate. This view is best explained in relation to Kant’s often criticized position on the right to revolution. Kant famously denied that there is a right to revol
    Extraction notes

    Validity: Extracted via Max plan + API grounding/validity checks

    Details

    Type
    claim
    Perspectives
    3 (1 for, 2 against)
    Edits
    1 edit