Rethinking Political Obligation

What are the grounds for and limits to obedience to the state? This book offers a fresh analysis of the most influential theories of political obligation and develops a novel approach to this foundational problem of political philosophy, a combination of the elements of natural duty and associative theories. The theory of political obligation developed in the book extends the scope of the contemporary debate on political obligation by arguing that political obligation can be binding even under the jurisdiction of unjust states. The arguments pursued in the book are illustrated with the results of sociological research concerning the reasons that governed people’s attitudes to the authoritarian communist regimes in East Europe.