POLI 231 Lecture Notes - Representative Democracy, Direct Democracy, Majoritarianism
31 Mar 2013
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Authority is the right to be able to command others. It"s correlative to the duty of the subject to obey. This right is a moral notion, not only the mere power (descriptive sense) but the right thing (normative sense) Authority and obeying command: not by virtue of independently good reasons difference between conforming to the command and obeying the command. Ex: - the teacher asks us to leave the room because there is a fire. If we leave, we conform to the command because there is a fire. Our decision is dependent on the content (the fact that there is a fire) Leaving the room because the teacher says so. In this case we are obeying the order simply because it comes from an authoritative figure, the teacher. Our decision is content independent: we leave not because there is a fire, but obey the command simply by virtue of the person"s position. The same can be applied to legitimacy: wolff.
