From Thomas Hobbes to Joseph Raz philosophical accounts of authority have struggled to accommodate its dependence on doing the right thing. The delivery of substantively defensible results remains relevant, even in the case of Hobbes, despite authority’s pre-emptive effect. While we have duties, if someone has authority over us, simply because the relevant person or institution has laid these down for us, the authority is rooted in a status that can be lost if the authority does not deliver substantively appealing results.
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