ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the concept of political authority and its ties to the concepts of liberty, equality, democracy, and justice. It argues that political authority understood as the right of those to rule who are "an authority" on politics is fundamental to most conservative theories. The chapter also examines two accounts of authority associated with the liberal tradition: Richard B. Friedman's coordinator, who directs actions but provides no reasons to accept her pronouncements as correct, and the Lockean umpire, who seeks to umpire disputes about justice and moral rights. Although both models have played important roles in liberal political theory, it also argues that the umpire model better accounts for the relation of liberal justice and liberal authority. The tendency of socialism to embrace hierarchical political authority, despite its deep commitment to equality, has deeper roots than Vladimir Ilyich Lenin's conviction that left to themselves, the workers would embrace reformist rather than revolutionary politics.
