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Political Philosophy

4 dot points, in syllabus order. Each dot point has a focused answer, with exam-style questions and worked answers where available.

How should the benefits and burdens of social cooperation be distributed across a society?

Compare Rawls's justice as fairness with Nozick's entitlement theory and evaluate patterned versus historical principles of distribution

Distributive justice asks how goods should be shared. Rawls argues from a hypothetical original position to principles favouring the worst off, while Nozick defends a historical entitlement theory that treats redistribution as a violation of rights.

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What is the proper limit of the power society may legitimately exercise over the individual?

Explain Mill's harm principle and the distinction between negative and positive liberty and evaluate limits on individual freedom

Mill's harm principle holds that the only legitimate ground for restricting a person's liberty is to prevent harm to others. Berlin's distinction between negative and positive liberty deepens the debate about what freedom really requires.

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What gives the state the right to rule, and do citizens have a genuine moral duty to obey the law?

Evaluate theories of political legitimacy and political obligation including consent, fairness and the challenge of philosophical anarchism

Political authority is the state's claimed right to rule and the citizen's supposed duty to obey. Theories ground this in consent, fairness or natural duty, while philosophical anarchists argue no such general duty can be justified.

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What makes political authority legitimate and a society just?

Evaluate social contract theories and competing conceptions of distributive justice

Political philosophy asks what justifies state authority and what a just distribution looks like. Social contract theorists from Hobbes to Rawls give rival accounts, challenged by Nozick's entitlement theory and communitarian critiques.

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