Suchergebnisse

Theories which attempt to define the nature of the soc bond which makes a community possible, & which investigate the nature of the obligation to obey the authorities, are prone to provide explanations solely in terms of the stipulated definitions of their concepts, & fail to pass the verifiability hurdle by being unable to explain the implications of the negation of their propositions--other than by maintaining by implication that all non-civil war circumstances are consensus circumstances, & then by drawing tautological conclusions. Specifically, the relevant functionalists & contract theorists rely on the pre-existence of consensus situations for their tenets, where no such situation need exist for the non-violent continuity of the community. Concern here is to investigate the thresholds of consensus & to consider the relationships of consensus to stability & the continuity of society. States function on a voluntary basis not because there is any basic, overall agreement between citizens, preventing conflict from developing into civil war, but because a minimal agreement will suffice to ensure continuity of the community in the midst of conflict & competition, & even in the midst of fundamental disagreement about basic soc policies, about the power, income, prestige & recognition to be awarded to factions, groups & classes in the State, & the nature of the State itself. IPSA.