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Muniz-Fraticelli on Political Pluralism & Authority

By Lawrence Solum

Victor M. Muniz-Fraticelli (McGill University) has posted The Problem of Pluralist Authority on SSRN. Here is the abstract:

Can pluralism offer a coherent account of political authority, one that does not deny the (plural) authority of associations in the process of denying the (unitary) authority of the state? Most of the arguments that political pluralists have used to undermine the claims of the modern state to absolute and indivisible authority leave no room for the exercise of authority by associations themselves. In this article I will reconstruct one prominent pluralist critique of state authority and explain how it undermines the very basis of the authority of associations. I then propose an alternative account of the concept of authority derived from Joseph Raz?s explanation of the authority of law. This account allows for the recognition of legitimate authority in associations, but it also necessitates the recognition of two types of authority in the state. Thus, while vindicating the authority of associations, I hope to repudiate the anti-authoritarian and antinomian stance of much of political pluralist theory, and set it on sounder footing.

Full post as published by Legal Theory Blog on August 02, 2010 (boomark / email).