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A Theory of Political Obligation - Membership, Commitment, and the Bonds of Society (Paperback)
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A Theory of Political Obligation - Membership, Commitment, and the Bonds of Society (Paperback)
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Margaret Gilbert offers an incisive new approach to a classic
problem of political philosophy: when and why should I do what the
laws of my country tell me to do? Beginning with carefully argued
accounts of social groups in general and political societies in
particular, the author argues that in central, standard senses of
the relevant terms membership in a political society in and of
itself obligates one to support that society's political
institutions. The obligations in question are not moral
requirements derived from general moral principles, as is often
supposed, but a matter of one's participation in a special kind of
commitment: joint commitment. An agreement is sufficient but not
necessary to generate such a commitment. Gilbert uses the phrase
'plural subject' to refer to all of those who are jointly committed
in some way. She therefore labels the theory offered in this book
the plural subject theory of political obligation.
The author concentrates on the exposition of this theory,
carefully explaining how and in what sense joint commitments
obligate. She also explores a classic theory of political
obligation--actual contract theory--according to which one is
obligated to conform to the laws of one's country because one
agreed to do so. She offers a new interpretation of this theory in
light of a theory of plural subject theory of agreements. She
argues that actual contract theory has more merit than has been
thought, though the more general plural subject theory is to be
preferred. She compares and contrasts plural subject theory with
identification theory, relationship theory, and the theory of fair
play. She brings it to bear on some classic situations of crisis,
and, inthe concluding chapter, suggests a number of avenues for
related empirical and moral inquiry.
Clearly and compellingly written, A Theory of Political
ObligationR will be essential reading for political philosophers
and theorists.
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