POLS 2200 Lecture Notes - Liberal Democracy, Working Poor, Industrial Revolution
11 Apr 2014
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Lecture: 1/15/2014: the theoretical question: why is any system of law alongside a system of law enforcement desirable within the discussion on the theoritecal origins of the laws legitimacy. Why is a system of law and law enforcement desirable from the perspective of any reasonable person: prior to thomas hobbes most moral and political theorists said that the legitimacy of law is to some kind of morality. Law is an exercise of power, the law authorizes you to do something and the argument was that the laws authority is grounded in morality. The point is that in the absence of a shared morality, power is exercised arbitrarily: hobbes says everyone in the room imagine for a second what life would be in the absence of the law. The law will work better when it works less, meaning a state that over polices is a failed state.
