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Political Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction Very Short Introductions are for anyone wanting a stimulating and accessible way in to a new subject. They are written by experts, and have been published in more than 25 languages worldwide. The series began in 1995, and now represents a wide variety of topics in history, philosophy, religion, science, and the humanities. Over the next few years it will grow to a library of around 200 volumes – a Very Short Introduction to everything from ancient Egypt and Indian philosophy to conceptual art and cosmology. Very Short Introductions available now: ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY Continental Philosophy Julia Annas Simon Critchley THE ANGLO-SAXON AGE COSMOLOGY Peter Coles John Blair CRYPTOGRAPHY ANIMAL RIGHTS Fred Piper and Sean Murphy David DeGrazia Darwin Jonathan Howard ARCHAEOLOGY Paul Bahn Democracy Bernard Crick ARCHITECTURE DESCARTES Tom Sorell Andrew Ballantyne DRUGS Leslie Iversen ARISTOTLE Jonathan Barnes THE EARTH Martin Redfern ART THEORY EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY Cynthia Freeland BRITAIN Paul Langford THE HISTORY OF EMOTION Dylan Evans ASTRONOMY Michael Hoskin EMPIRE Stephen Howe Atheism Julian Baggini ENGELS Terrell Carver Augustine Henry Chadwick Ethics Simon Blackburn BARTHES Jonathan Culler The European Union THE BIBLE John Riches John Pinder BRITISH POLITICS EVOLUTION Anthony Wright Brian and Deborah Charlesworth Buddha Michael Carrithers FASCISM Kevin Passmore BUDDHISM Damien Keown THE FRENCH REVOLUTION THE CELTS Barry Cunliffe William Doyle CHOICE THEORY Freud Anthony Storr Michael Allingham Galileo Stillman Drake CLASSICS Mary Beard and Gandhi Bhikhu Parekh John Henderson GLOBALIZATION CLAUSEWITZ Manfred Steger Michael Howard HEGEL Peter Singer THE COLD WAR HEIDEGGER Michael Inwood Robert McMahon HINDUISM Kim Knott HISTORY John H. Arnold POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY HOBBES Richard Tuck David Miller HUME A. J. Ayer POSTCOLONIALISM IDEOLOGY Michael Freeden Robert Young Indian Philosophy POSTMODERNISM Sue Hamilton Christopher Butler Intelligence Ian J. Deary POSTSTRUCTURALISM ISLAM Malise Ruthven Catherine Belsey JUDAISM Norman Solomon PREHISTORY Chris Gosden Jung Anthony Stevens Psychology Gillian Butler and KANT Roger Scruton Freda McManus KIERKEGAARD QUANTUM THEORY Patrick Gardiner John Polkinghorne THE KORAN Michael Cook ROMAN BRITAIN LINGUISTICS Peter Matthews Peter Salway LITERARY THEORY ROUSSEAU Robert Wokler Jonathan Culler RUSSELL A. C. Grayling LOCKE John Dunn RUSSIAN LITERATURE LOGIC Graham Priest Catriona Kelly MACHIAVELLI Quentin Skinner THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION MARX Peter Singer S. A. Smith MATHEMATICS SCHIZOPHRENIA Timothy Gowers Chris Frith and Eve Johnstone MEDIEVAL BRITAIN SCHOPENHAUER John Gillingham and Christopher Janaway Ralph A. Griffiths SHAKESPEARE Germaine Greer MODERN IRELAND SOCIAL AND CULTURAL Senia Pasˇeta ANTHROPOLOGY MUSIC Nicholas Cook John Monaghan and Peter Just NIETZSCHE Michael Tanner SOCIOLOGY Steve Bruce NINETEENTH-CENTURY Socrates C. C. W. Taylor BRITAIN Christopher Harvie and SPINOZA Roger Scruton H. C. G. Matthew STUART BRITAIN NORTHERN IRELAND John Morrill Marc Mulholland TERRORISM Charles Townshend paul E. P. Sanders THEOLOGY David F. Ford Philosophy Edward Craig THE TUDORS John Guy PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE TWENTIETH-CENTURY Samir Okasha BRITAIN Kenneth O. Morgan PLATO Julia Annas Wittgenstein A. C. Grayling POLITICS Kenneth Minogue WORLD MUSIC Philip Bohlman Available soon: AFRICAN HISTORY FUNDAMENTALISM John Parker and Richard Rathbone Malise Ruthven ANCIENT EGYPT Ian Shaw Habermas Gordon Finlayson ART HISTORY Dana Arnold HIEROGLYPHS THE BRAIN Michael O’Shea Penelope Wilson BUDDHIST ETHICS HIROSHIMA B. R. Tomlinson Damien Keown HUMAN EVOLUTION CAPITALISM James Fulcher Bernard Wood CHAOS Leonard Smith INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS CHRISTIAN ART Beth Williamson Paul Wilkinson CHRISTIANITY Linda Woodhead JAZZ Brian Morton CITIZENSHIP Richard Bellamy MANDELA Tom Lodge CLASSICAL ARCHITECTURE MEDICAL ETHICS Tony Hope Robert Tavernor THE MIND Martin Davies CLONING Arlene Judith Klotzko MOLECULES Philip Ball CONTEMPORARY ART Myth Robert Segal Julian Stallabrass NATIONALISM Steven Grosby THE CRUSADES PERCEPTION Richard Gregory Christopher Tyerman PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION DADA AND SURREALISM Jack Copeland and David Hopkins Diane Proudfoot Derrida Simon Glendinning PHOTOGRAPHY Steve Edwards DESIGN John Heskett THE PRESOCRATICS Dinosaurs David Norman Catherine Osborne DREAMING J. Allan Hobson THE RAJ Denis Judd ECONOMICS Partha Dasgupta THE RENAISSANCE EGYPTIAN MYTHOLOGY Jerry Brotton Geraldine Pinch RENAISSANCE ART THE ELEMENTS Philip Ball Geraldine Johnson THE END OF THE WORLD SARTRE Christina Howells Bill McGuire THE SPANISH CIVIL WAR EXISTENTIALISM Thomas Flynn Helen Graham THE FIRST WORLD WAR TRAGEDY Adrian Poole Michael Howard THE TWENTIETH CENTURY FREE WILL Thomas Pink Martin Conway For more information visit our web site www.oup.co.uk/vsi David Miller POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY A Very Short Introduction 1 3 Great Clarendon Street, Oxford ox2 6dp Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide in Oxford New York Auckland Bangkok Buenos Aires Cape Town Chennai Dar es Salaam Delhi Hong Kong Istanbul Karachi Kolkata Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Mumbai Nairobi São Paulo Shanghai Taipei Tokyo Toronto Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries Published in the United States by Oxford University Press Inc., New York © David Miller 2003 The moral rights of the author have been asserted Database right Oxford University Press (maker) First published as a Very Short Introduction 2003 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics rights organizations. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above You must not circulate this book in any other binding or cover and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Data available Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Data available ISBN 13: 978–0–19–280395–5 ISBN 10: 0–19–280395–6 5 7 9 10 8 6 Typeset by RefineCatch Ltd, Bungay, Suffolk Printed in Great Britain by TJ International Ltd., Padstow, Cornwall Contents Preface ix List of illustrations xi 1 Why do we need political philosophy? 1 2 Political authority 19 3 Democracy 37 4 Freedom and the limits of government 55 5 Justice 74 6 Feminism and multiculturalism 92 7 Nations, states, and global justice 112 Further reading 133 Index 141 This page intentionally left blank Preface I wanted this book to make political philosophy engaging and accessible to people who had never encountered it before, and so I have tried hard to write as simply as possible without sacrificing accuracy. Explaining some fairly abstract ideas without lapsing into the technical jargon that deadens so much academic writing today proved to be an interesting challenge. I am extremely grateful to friends from different walks of life who agreed to read the first draft of the manuscript, and along with general encouragement made many helpful suggestions: Graham Anderson, George Brown, Sue Miller, Elaine Poole, and Adam Swift, as well as two readers from Oxford University Press. I should also like to thank Zofia Stemplowska for invaluable help in preparing the final manuscript.