Abstract
In this chapter, Brown considers the Critical Approach to Political Obligation. In contrast to the Rational and Context-based approaches, the Critical Approach rejects the idea that citizens owe any obligation to the State. Instead, regarding the State as a tool used by one dominant group—be it economic class or gender—to suppress the majority, it views arguments of Political Obligation as a narrative used to deceive citizens into accepting an unfavourable and oppressive situation. Brown recognises the important lesson the Critical Approach teaches about possible methods of deception inherent within State communications. However, in assuming that all States are simply tools of oppression, the Critical Approach inhibits its ability to appreciate the perspective of citizens who feel genuine affection for political authority. This limitation is encapsulated in the notion of ‘false consciousness’: the idea that perceptions which do not correlate with the Critical Approach are by virtue ‘false’.
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Brown, R.J. (2019). The Oppressor and the Oppressed: Marxist and Other Critical Paradigms of Obligation. In: Political Encounters. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-17340-1_4
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