Table of Contents

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.

Promotional Information

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.

Reviews

'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