Freedom versus Authority

Abstract

The attack upon authority has been carried on largely in the name of freedom or liberty. In these discussions, liberty is frequently left undefined, or ill-defined; also, authority is confused with power and associated with force, rather than understood as the capacity for reasoned elaboration. In order to clarify the relation of liberty and authority, we must, in the light of our theory of authority, state the problem of liberty more precisely. But before we do this, and as an introduction, we might consider a key passage in John Stuart Mill’s On Liberty which is often cited in connection with our problem. At the beginning of his analysis, he wrote:

The struggle between liberty and authority is the most conspicuous feature in the portions of history with which we are earliest familiar, particularly in that of Greece, Rome, and England. But in old times this contest was between subjects… and the government. The rulers were conceived as in a necessarily antagonistic position to the people… Their power was regarded as necessary, but also as highly dangerous.. The aim, therefore, of patriots was to set limits to the power which the ruler should be suffered to exercise over the community; and those limitations was what was meant by liberty.¹