Authority and Legitimacy: Basis and Boundaries of Majority Rule
Course Description:
What gives people in power the right to make and enforce laws? This course examines classic and
contemporary conceptions of political authority and legitimacy. What is authority and when is it
legitimate? Does legitimate authority depend on the consent of citizens, or on the justice of decisions?
Can the people hold ultimate authority over the law, or is this merely empty rhetoric? Authors include
Hobbes, Rousseau, Weber, Schmitt, Arendt, Althusser, Wolff, Nozick, and Habermas.
Assignments:
Students are required to submit (a) a term paper of approximately 25 pages on a topic chosen in
consultation with me and (b) one-page papers at each seminar meeting reacting to that week’s
readings. We will begin seminars with these papers—sometimes trading them with other
students for commentary, sometimes with students being called upon to read theirs to the class—
so it is essential that they be completed before each meeting. The term paper will count for 75
percent of the course grade, with attendance, participation and the reaction papers comprising the
other 25 percent.
Texts:
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Plato, The Death of Socrates (Penguin Classics)
Aristotle, The Politics (Hackett)
Locke, Political Writings (Hackett)
Rousseau, The Social Contract (Classic Books)
Tocqueville, Democracy in America (University of Chicago Press)
Frohnen, The American Republic (Liberty Fund)
Calhoun, Union and Liberty (Liberty Fund)
Dahl, Preface to Democratic Theory (University of Chicago Press)
Caplan, Myth of the Rational Voter (Princeton University Press)
Please note that many of these readings are available free of charge via the Online Library of
Liberty (oll.libertyfund.org). I recommend but do not require that you use the translations above
for those works not originally written in English. I will reference page numbers in the above
editions during class discussions. Readings not listed above or whose source is not otherwise
specified may be found on electronic reserve.
Schedule:
Part I: Foundations
Introduction
Plato
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Euthyphro, pp. 9-30; The Apology, 39-70; Crito, 79-96
Willmoore Kendall, “The People versus Socrates Revisited”
(http://www.mmisi.org/ma/03_01/kendall.pdf)
Aristotle (The Politics: Books III, IV and VI).
Locke (Second Treatise, pp. 261-387)
Rousseau (Social Contract, reading assignment TBA).
Part II: American Ideas
The Constitutional View
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James Madison, “Vices of the Political Systems of the United States,” http://presspubs.uchicago.edu/founders/documents/v1ch4s11.html
Frohnen: Mayflower Compact, Thoughts on Government, Federalist 10, 39 and 49-51,
Address of the Pennsylvania Minority
McWilliams, “Democracy and the Citizen”
The Bill of Rights
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Locke: Letter Concerning Toleration
Frohnen: Little Speech on Liberty, Bloody Tenent, Massachusetts Body of Liberties,
Declaration of Independence, Memorial and Remonstrance, Federalist 78 and 84
Barry Alan Shain, The Myth of American Individualism (selection)
Political Minorities
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Calhoun (Disquisition, entire)
Lani Guinier, The Tyranny of the Majority (Introduction)
Tocqueville
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Democracy in America, pp. 45-54, 100-104, 165-202, 225-277, 479-492, 500-503, 643650
Part III: Problems
Majority Rule and Individual Liberty
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John Stuart Mill, On Liberty (entire)
Majority Rule and Culture
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Irving Babbitt, Democracy and Leadership (“Democracy and Standards,” 265-343)
Tocqueville, pp. 426-450, 463-464, 506-517, 521-524, 535-539, 546-553, 555-563, 661676
Majority? What Majority?
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Dahl, Preface, Chs. 2, 3 and 5
Willmoore Kendall and George Carey, “The Intensity Problem and Democratic Theory”
(JSTOR)
Majorities and Self-Interest
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Caplan, Chapters 1, 4, 5, 6, 7