Command and Obedience Relationship

A parent tells a child to be home by nine, an officer orders a soldier to advance, a statute tells every driver to stop at a red light. All three are commands expecting obedience, but only one of them is what political science means by the command-and-obedience relationship that underlies the State — and knowing why sharpens exactly what political obligation is asking you to justify.

In two minutes

The command and obedience relationship describes the State issuing binding directions (laws) which citizens are expected to obey, and it is the raw, morally neutral picture that every theory of political obligation must justify, qualify or challenge.

The rest of this chapter

The full explanation, the cheat sheet, every previous-year question at every mark weight, the quiz and the answer skeletons are part of Political Science – II: Foundations of Political Obligation on LexBlox Semester. Sign in to unlock the subject, or read Module 1 of Legal Language and Writing free.