Abstract
The philosophical literature on state legitimacy has recently seen a significant conceptual revision. Several philosophers have argued that the state’s right to rule is better characterized not as a claim right to obedience, but as a power right. There have been few attempts to show that traditional justifications for the claim right might also be used to justify a power right, and there have been no such attempts involving the principle of fair play, which is widely regarded as the most promising basis for a claim right to obedience. William Edmundson argues that the principle of fair play cannot generate power rights, and so any attempt at a fair play account of legitimacy must fail.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 88-99 |
Number of pages | 12 |
Journal | Ratio |
Volume | 30 |
Issue number | 1 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Mar 1 2017 |