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Many people believe that citizens, and especially citizens in democratic states, have a duty to accept the authority of the law and to support and comply with the institutions of their state. In this module you will examine this assumption in depth, and from various perspectives. You will engage with recent philosophical discussions on the nature of political authority, on the legitimacy of democracy and on the duty to resist state injustices.

The module covers three broad topics:
• Political Authority: do states have the right to demand obedience of their citizens? Do citizens have a duty to obey the law? What is the best answer to the ‘anarchist challenge’? What are the relative merits and weaknesses of various accounts of political obligations? Do real world states, marred by social and racial injustices as they are, have legitimate authority?
• Democracy: is democracy the only legitimate form of political authority? Do democratic citizens have political obligations beyond obeying the law? Does democracy imply states should have no borders? What barriers do social and racial oppression, within states and outside them set to the democratic ideal?
• Resistance: what should democratic citizens do when they find out that their state acts unjustly? Do citizens have a right to civil disobedience, and what is the proper legal response to this form of protest? Do they have a duty to resist injustice? And what form should this resistance take? May citizens ever resort to violent protest?

Teaching Delivery
Each week, there will be a 50-minute lecture followed by a 50-minute seminar. The lecture will provide an overview of the week’s topic and the literature that surrounds it. In the seminar, you will discuss the topic in depth with your peers. You will be expected to read around three articles or chapters for each seminar.
This is a module in normative political theory, defined as the study of the norms and principles that should guide political societies. It assumes some background knowledge in political theory, and students are strongly encouraged to have taken two prior modules with a strong focus on normative political theory -- for example, POLS061 Justice and POLS0063 Ethics & Public Policy (both compulsory for PIR), POLS006 Introduction to Politics and PHIL0007 Introduction to Political Philosophy (both compulsory for PPE), or equivalent.

By the end of the module:
• You will have a clear grasp of some of the debates that surround the concepts of political obligation, democratic legitimacy and political resistance.
• You will be able to critically analyse, compare and deploy the main positions presented in these debates.
• You will be able to apply these theoretical debates to questions of public concern.
• You will develop general skills in analysing arguments conceptually and theoretically, in expressing themselves orally and in writing, and in participating in group discussions.

Recommended Readings
The books below provide useful overviews of some of the core topics we will cover. Depending on your background knowledge, you might find it helpful to consult one or more of these sources before the start of the term. They can all be found in the ÐÂÏã¸ÛÁùºÏ²Ê¿ª½±½á¹ûLibrary.
• John Horton, Political Obligation (2nd edition, 2010)
• Dudley Knowles, Political Obligation: A Critical Introduction (2009)
• Kit Wellman and John Simmons, Is There a Duty to obey the Law? For and Against (2012)