 Even if we cannot be said to have meaningfully consented to them, it seems clear that (reasonably just) political authorities do provide us with crucially important benefits, such as security and the rule of law. Some have pointed to these benefits to justify our duty to obey and support the authorities in question. The core idea here is that those who benefit from a fair scheme of cooperation have a duty to do their allotted part under that scheme. In other words, if others obey the law to our benefit, we owe them a duty not to take a free-ride on their compliance (Hart 1955; Rawls 1964).