Radicalizing realist legitimacy

Abstract

Several critics of realist theories of political legitimacy have alleged that it possesses a problematic bias towards the status quo. This bias is thought to be reflected in the way in which these theories are more willing to accommodate potentially severe injustices which may exist in real societies. In this article, I focus on the most widely discussed realist theory of legitimacy, namely that of Bernard Williams. I argue that it is not only free of such status quo bias; it also has considerably more radical, anti-status quo potential than what is commonly thought and, indeed, what Williams himself may have thought.