The main part of the entry (section  4)   concerns the nature and merits of different accounts of the legitimacy of political authority.  Under what conditions is political authority legitimate?  This entry discusses five different views of the legitimacy of political authority.  It discusses the instrumentalist theory according to which authority is legitimate to the extent that it gets people to do what they already have a duty to do.  It discusses the consent theory of authority according to which authority is legitimate only if the subjects have consented to it.  It discusses the theory advanced by John Rawls that authority is legitimate if and only if it acts in accord with principles the subjects agree to.  It discusses Ronald Dworkin's view according to which legitimate political authority is akin to the basis of obligations to friendships, families and other associations.  Finally it discusses the democratic conception of authority according to which the democratic assembly has legitimate political authority within certains limits because it treats every citizen as an equal in the process of making law.