Affiliation:
1. Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island
Abstract
In this essay I develop and defend a theory of state punishment within a wider conception of political legitimacy. While many moral theories of punishment focus on what is deserved by criminals, I theorize punishment within the specific context of the state's relationship to its citizens. Central to my account is Rawls's “liberal principle of legitimacy,” which requires that all state coercion be justifiable to all citizens. I extend this idea to the justification of political coercion to criminals qua citizens. I argue that the liberal principle of legitimacy implicitly requires states to respect the basic political rights of those who are guilty of committing crimes, thus prohibiting capital punishment.
Subject
Sociology and Political Science,History
Reference32 articles.
1. Joel Feinberg, “The Classic Debate,” in Philosophy of Law, 5th ed., ed. Joel Feinberg and Hyman Gross (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 1995).
2. John Rawls, Political Liberalism (New York: Columbia University Press, 1996), 137.
3. Hypothetical Consent and Justification
4. The Discursive Dilemma and Public Reason
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