THE BOOK
Power, Tolerance and Legitimacy
The question is not whether coercive power is legitimate. It is how much of it can be tolerated.
ABOUT THE BOOK
A Theory of Power and Legitimacy
Power, Tolerance and Legitimacy begins from the argument that the State possesses no intrinsic moral legitimacy and remains constrained by structural informational, economic and institutional limitations.
Coercion therefore requires justification rather than presumption. The book develops the moral and functional arguments that culminate in the Theory of Minimal Tolerance.
The result is a framework for identifying the exceptionally narrow circumstances under which state coercion may be tolerated without being morally legitimized.
STRUCTURE
Three Acts
The first act examines the moral and economic problems surrounding political coercion and develops the Theory of Minimal Tolerance.
The second tests the theory against its strongest objections and examines how narrow exceptions become instruments for the expansion of power.
The third turns to bureaucracy, institutional self-limitation and the conditions required for a tolerable political order.
FOUNDATIONAL PAPER
Read the SSRN Paper
The original paper presents the formal theorem and provides the theoretical foundation for the book.
Open on SSRN