On Legitimacy and Authority: A Response to Krehoff
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
11-7-2008
Abstract
In this paper I respond to Bernd Krehoff’s article ‘Legitimate Political Authority and Sovereignty: Why States Cannot Be the Whole Story’. I criticize Krehoff’s use of Raz’s theory of authority to evaluate the legitimacy of our political institutions. Krehoff argues that states cannot (always) claim exclusive authority and therefore cannot possess exclusive legitimacy. Although I agree with his conclusion, I argue that the questions of legitimacy and (Razian) authority are distinct and that we need to focus more on the former in order to really support and defend Krehoff’s conclusions.
Recommended Citation
van der Vossen, Bas. “On Legitimacy and Authority”, Res Publica 14 (2008): 299-302. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11158-008-9074-y
Peer Reviewed
1
Copyright
Springer
Comments
This article was originally published in Res Publica, volume 14, in 2008. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11158-008-9074-y
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