The Problem of Authorization

Abstract

This chapter addresses the question of authorization on whether there are limits to what a democratic government can validly authorize private actors to do on its behalf. It contends that there should be aggregative limits to what private actors can be validly authorized to do and decide on behalf of a democratic government. It also clarifies the claim that privatization, beyond a certain threshold, should be regarded as an abdication of the collective right to democratic self-rule. The chapter explains how a democratic people lack the moral power to abdicate their own self-rule, while a government lacks the moral power to validly engage in the systematic privatization of public functions. It discusses delegations that should be regarded as lacking the authorizing normative power that the government purport to have in societies where privatization is already pervasive.