Analytical Contents Preface PART I:THE ILLUSION OF AUTHORITY The Problem of Political Authority The Traditional Social Contract Theory The Hypothetical Social Contract Theory The Authority of Democracy Consequentialism and Fairness The Psychology of Authority What If There Is No Authority? PART II: SOCIETY WITHOUT AUTHORITY Evaluating Social Theories The Logic of Predation Individual Security in a Stateless Society Criminal Justice and Dispute Resolution War and Societal Defense From Democracy to Anarchy References Index

The state is often ascribed a special sort of authority, one that obliges citizens to obey its commands and entitles the state to enforce those commands through threats of violence. This book argues that this notion is a moral illusion: no one has ever possessed that sort of authority.

Michael Huemer is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Colorado at Boulder, USA, where he has worked since 1998. He is the author of Skepticism and the Veil of Perception and Ethical Intuitionism , as well as more than 40 articles in ethics, epistemology, political philosophy, and metaphysics.