Great power inequalities undercut the possibility of voluntary uncoerced agreement.

Evidence

Annette Baier (1986, 247) argues that “voluntary agreement, and trust in others to keep their agreements, must be moved from the center to the moral periphery, once servants, ex-slaves, and women are taken seriously as moral subjects and agents.” Great power differences undercut the very possibility of agreement that is voluntary and uncoerced. For example, Immanuel Kant’s kingdom of ends—that is, rational beings—makes little sense where there are gross inequalities. — Russell Hardin, Trust and Trustworthiness, 485

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines Baier’s central challenge: trust-based moral theory built on voluntary agreement fails under power asymmetry.
• XREF: Connects directly to the reader’s Hardin/Luhmann synthesis: the doctor’s wife’s authority rests on asymmetric knowledge, not asymmetric violence — a power-differentiated trust arrangement. — connects to: Two-thirds agreement on the UN corporate code masked irreconcilable North-South divides — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin: The Making…, 1796