Political Obligations. By George Klosko. Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 2005. 276p. $74.00.
Do citizens have even a prima facie moral obligation to obey the law
of a reasonably just state? Most contemporary political theorists think
not. George Klosko disagrees with these philosophical anarchists, and in
this book he explains why. In the first, longer section, he builds upon
his earlier work, The Principle of Fairness and Political
Obligation (1992, new ed. 2004), to produce a new, multistranded
argument for the existence of a moral obligation to obey the law. In the
last four chapters, Klosko examines, empirically, what constitutional
courts in three liberal states, and a selection of ordinary people in the
United States, have to say about the nature and foundations of political
obligations.