Absolute Authority

In this article, I set side by side two conceptions of absolute authority. Behind both stands a neutral concept of absolute authority whose definition is common ground between them. An absolute authority is one whose commands its subjects have an obligation to obey independently of all conditions save those necessary to its being an authority. The conceptions of absolute authority I discuss describe a legal relation between a political authority and a political subject meant to satisfy that definition, but they do so in opposite ways. Roughly (for now), one conceives absolute authority as being empty of legal duty to the subject; the other conceives absolute authority as being replete with legal...