Philippine E-Journals

Political Obligation in Catholic Social Thought

Jean Paul L. Zialcita

Discipline: Political Science

 

Abstract:

Inquiry into the bases of political obligation, understood as the duty incumbent on members of a political community to obey the commands of the political authority constituted over them, has been considered by some as the central task of political philosophy. Whether or not one accepts such a thesis, one surely cannot deny its significance, given that the degree to which members of a community accept that they are under such an obligation determines to a large extent how politics plays out in that community. It is, therefore, of great political import that some justification for obedience to political authority be sought.