ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the central paradox of liberal democratic theory: how can we be born free, as morally autonomous agents, and still have political obligations such as the duty to obey law? It is argued that legitimate laws might preserve the freedom of the individual whilst justifying the state’s coercive power. Social contract, constituent power, and sociological explanations of legitimacy are rejected as factually and theoretically unconvincing in liberal democracy. Instead, “legitimacy claims” are presented as a device of rational normativity, or moral logic, which can explain the paradox. The chapter also explains how protest can act as a “legitimacy counterclaim,” in legal theory and political theory, in which protesters engage in democratic dialogue against a law or policy which they believe fails the constitutional morality of the state.
