Author Description

This mongraph reasserts the primacy of property in political theorising. Arguing that the determination of property rights is part of the justification of the state, MacDonald notes the failure of much current philosophising to take account of this role when setting out the normative arguments for legitimate political authority. MacDonald criticises current philosophical definitions of property as a bundle-of-rights, arguing that for normative purposes, property is a right of exclusion in rem. Thereby MacDonald escapes the interminable moral and legal arguments over property - such as questions of Lockean labour theory, self-ownership, and indigenous historical injustice - that have dominated recent political philosophy. Instead, the book focuses on the failure of libertarian and liberal egalitarian theories of justice to produce a plausible account of both legitimate political authority¿s right to regulate property, and the principles upon which that regulation ought to occur. The book will be of interest to scholars of political philosophy and theory, especially those engaged in the contemporary ideas of justice, legitimacy and the justification of the state.