Political Naturalism: A Vindicatory Genealogy of Legitimacy Without Sovereignty

This paper provides a vindicatory genealogy of coercive non-state political structures—of legitimacy without sovereignty—and a debunking genealogy of the statism implicit in most contemporary theories of legitimacy. We draw on empirical evidence from anthropology and archaeology to provide a modern version of political naturalism: the Aristotelian idea that there are forms of political organisation that are natural for human beings. Our contention is that the natural political condition is one structured by coercively enforced norms, but not of the vertical kind found in states. Rather, it’s a form of horizontal coercion: members collectively self-enforce norms and decisions, with no distinct central authority and thus no sovereignty. The classic real-life example of this form of political organisation would be a hunter-gatherer band. We also discuss applications of this model of legitimate coercion to modern settings, with a particular focus on prefigurative politics and municipal confederalism. (Paper submitted to the legitimacy panel)