The Question of Legitimate Government Authority

Assuming that we have free will (big assumption!), then we are responsible for our own actions. We are autonomous. Literally, this means to rule one’s self by one’s own laws; i.e., to be “sef-legislating” (auto=self, nomos=law).

We value our autonomy. But, we are capable of consensually forfeiting some or all of it. For instance, I might decide to do whatever a doctor instructs me to do, because she knows better than I what the best course of action is.

We are often told that the purpose of government is to secure and protect our liberties, but the existence of government also necessarily entails a restriction of our liberties. In order to establish a government, we must forfeit some of our autonomy.

In a society with enforced laws, you will not be free to do whatever you want with yourself. If you kill someone, or steal from them, you will be punished. In a society that provides any sort of public good (e.g., military, police, schools, etc.), you will not be free to do whatever you want with your money, or property. Since such goods need to be paid for, some of your money will (probably) be taken from you as taxation.

When governments do these things (enforcing laws and collecting taxes), we do not question it. There is an assumption that the government’s authority to do these things is legitimate. It doesn’t just DO these things. Rather, it has a legitimate AUTHORITY to do these things. That is, the government has a legitimate RIGHT to enforce laws and collect taxes, and we, the governed, have a legitimate DUTY or OBLIGATION to obey laws and pay taxes, etc.

But, what legitimatizes the government’s authority? Certainly, if *I* were to go around incarcerating people that I caught committing crimes (e.g., I see you steal something, so I capture you and lock you in my basement), or if *I* were to go around demanding money from people in exchange for protection, education, etc. (and if they don’t pay me, once again, I lock them up in my basement), my authority to do these things would NOT be legitimate. In fact, my actions would seem immoral! So, what justifies the government’s power over the governed?

Note that this is not simply the question, Do I have any good REASONS to obey the government? Certainly, we have those. For instance, presumably no one likes prison. And, if you disobey laws or fail to pay taxes, you will be imprisoned. So, this is a good reason to submit to government authority. But, note that this does not make that

1 authority LEGITIMATE. For, you would have exactly those SAME reasons to submit to MY authority if I held you at gunpoint as ordered you to pay ME “taxes”. To say that the government’s authority is legitimate is to say that the government’s demands on us are justified, morally permissible, and we have a DUTY to obey them (contrast this with being held at gunpoint. My demands are unjustified, morally impermissible, and you have no duty to obey; if you DO obey, it will merely be out of fear of the repercussions for disobeying).

Wolff points out that we just seem to ACCEPT that the government’s authority over us IS legitimate because people tend to never question the state of the world that they are given. We are born into the world governed. That’s just the way it is. But, WHY should it be that way, or continue to be that way? At the start, we seem to have one strong reason AGAINST such authority: Namely, legitimate government authority requires a restriction of our liberty, or autonomy. We’ll examine this question in more detail over the coming weeks.

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