- Coercive state power(as the type of power being discussed)
- The government's ability to force people to obey laws, including punishing those who break them (through fines, imprisonment, etc.).
- Legitimacy(as what the argument is discussing whether democracy or autocracy can possess)
- The quality of being rightfully in power; when people accept that a government has the right to rule.
- Membership(in political philosophy)
- In this context, belonging to a group or community and having the associated duties and rights that come with it.
- Michael Walzer(as a key communitarian critic mentioned in the statement)
- A contemporary American philosopher who argues that different goods (like healthcare, money, and education) should be distributed according to their own distinct rules rather than all being treated as market commodities.
- Reciprocal obligations(as what comes with membership)
- Duties that go both ways—members owe something to the community, and the community owes something back to its members.
- Shared understandings(as what shapes a community's specific obligations)
- Common beliefs and values that a community agrees on about how things should work, based on their history and culture together.
- Sphere sovereignty(as Walzer's main theory in this statement)
- The idea that different parts of society (like government, markets, families, and schools) should each follow their own rules about what's fair, and power from one sphere shouldn't take over another.