Introductory description

Governments rule over us. They command our obedience and enforce their commands with enormous coercive power. To take just one example: governments order us to pay taxes and lock us up if we don't. What, if anything, could make it legitimate for governments to wield this awesome power? And when, if ever, is it permissible for citizens to resist the state's commands?

It is widely assumed that political authority is legitimate when but only when it is democratic. In the first part of the module, we will put this assumption to the test by examining two influential challenges to the authority of democracy: the anarchist challenge and the epistocratic challenge. In the second part of the module, we will examine several important defences of the authority of democracy based on the values of equality, freedom, and truth. In the final part of the module, we will turn our attention to the issue of resistance to democratic authority. We will focus on three methods of resistance that have often been thought to be at the heart of the democratic ideal: civil disobedience of the law, uncivil disobedience of the law, and voting.

Module aims

Outline syllabus

This is an indicative module outline only to give an indication of the sort of topics that may be covered. Actual sessions held may differ.

Week 1: Introduction
Week 2: The Anarchist Challenge
Week 3: The Epistocratic Challenge
Week 4: Democracy as Equality
Week 5: Democracy as Freedom
Week 7: Democracy as Truth
Week 8: Resistance through Civil Disobedience
Week 9: Resistance through Uncivil Disobedience
Week 10: Resistance through Voting

Learning outcomes

By the end of the module, students should be able to:

• (i) demonstrate understanding of the central questions and theories concerning the nature of political authority
• (ii) demonstrate understanding of central questions and theories concerning duties to resist injustice in democracies
• (iii) demonstrate understanding of the central theories defending and opposing the authority of democratic institutions
• (iv) demonstrate the ability to relate key questions and concepts in the philosophy of political authority to broader philosophical questions and concepts concerning morality, epistemology, and metaphysics.

Indicative reading list

Joseph Raz, selections from The Morality of Freedom

Stephen Darwall, “Authority and Reasons: Exclusionary and Second-Personal”

Plato, selections from The Republic

John Locke, selections from Second Treatise of Government

Jean-Jacques Rousseau, selections from The Social Contract

David Estlund, selections from Democratic Authority

Thomas Christiano, selections from The Constitution of Equality

Hélène Landemore, selections from Democratic Reason

Fabienne Peter, selections from Democratic Legitimacy

Gerald Gaus, selections from The Order of Public Reason

Daniel Viehoff, “Democratic Equality and Political Authority”

Robert Paul Wolff, selections from In Defense of Anarchism

Alex Zakaras, “Complicity and Coercion: Towards an Ethics of Political Participation”

Hanna Pitkin, selections from The Concept of Representation

Tommie Shelby, "Justice, Deviance, and the Dark Ghetto"

Martin Luther King Jr., “Letter from a Birmingham Jail”

Kimberley Brownlee, selections from Conscience and Conviction: The Case for Civil Disobedience

Juliet Hooker, “Black Lives Matter and the Paradox of U.S. Black Politics: From Democratic Sacrifice to Democratic Repair”

Candace Delmas, selections from The Duty to Resist: When Disobedience Should be Uncivil

Javier Hidalgo, selections from Unjust Borders: Individuals and the Ethics of Immigration

Chong-Ming Lim, "Vandalising Tainted Commemorations"

Frantz Fanon, selections from The Wretched of the Earth

Subject specific skills

-By the end of the module students should have an understanding of the central questions, concepts, and debates concerning the general nature of political authority, the authority of democratic institutions, and obligations to resist injustice.

Transferable skills

-By the end of the module students should be able to demonstrate an understanding of the main literature in these debates. -By the end of the module students should be able to critically analyse the arguments for and against the key positions defended in the literature. -By the end of the module students should be able to demonstrate their understanding of the central questions, concepts, and debates discussed in the module in speech and writing. -By the end of the module students should be able to draw connections between the key ideas and arguments discussed in the module to other problems and debates in philosophy.