“Un Pouvoir Ordinaire”

Abstract

This chapter examines shared membership in a state as a ground of justice. It proposes an account of immediacy and merges it with John Rawls' notion of reciprocity into an overall account of shared membership in a state as a ground of justice. To characterize shared membership in a state as a ground, the chapter explores the manner in which states are coercive. Coercion is characterized by two features. First, it creates conditions under which person P has no reasonable alternative but to do A. Second, coercion involves a threat: P has no reasonable alternative but to do A because otherwise the coercive agent seriously worsens P's circumstances. The chapter shows that there are principles of justice that apply within states, thus refuting globalism and nonrelationism since both hold that all such principles apply globally.