Author: Robert Silcock Downie
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Democracy
Languages : en
Pages : 145

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Book Description

Author: Robert (R. S.) Downie
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1000819035
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 203

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Book Description
This book was first published in 1964. Everything in politics has changed since then why a reprint? Because moral criticisms of governments haven’t changed. Indeed, historical comparison suggests a disconcerting similarity. We still accept a liberal-democratic morality and politics and believe that it is individuals who bear moral responsibility. How can we reconcile the corporate actions of governments with individual responsibility? Is the private life of politicians relevant to their official actions? Should politicians resign if they disagree with government policy? These problems are still with us, and the 1964 discussion of them remains illuminating. We elect governments to further our material interests, but we also believe that they should express our moral ideals, for example by providing vaccines, alleviating poverty or supporting oppressed countries. Are moral ideals consistent with political realism? The book reconciles these apparently opposed positions by introducing the concept of governments as ‘moral intermediaries.’ The reconciliation develops liberal-democracy in a way that will interest political theorists. As a whole the book offers a readable discussion of the many ways in which morality has a bearing on government action, and it captures and analyses contemporary political and moral aspirations.

Author: Paul Henson Appleby
Publisher: Greenwood
ISBN:
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 288

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Author: John Hamilton Hallowell
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 152

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Author: Eric Beerbohm
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691168156
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 366

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Book Description
When a government in a democracy acts in our name, are we, as citizens, responsible for those acts? What if the government commits a moral crime? The protestor's slogan--"Not in our name!"--testifies to the need to separate ourselves from the wrongs of our leaders. Yet the idea that individual citizens might bear a special responsibility for political wrongdoing is deeply puzzling for ordinary morality and leading theories of democracy. In Our Name explains how citizens may be morally exposed to the failures of their representatives and state institutions, and how complicity is the professional hazard of democratic citizenship. Confronting the ethical challenges that citizens are faced with in a self-governing democracy, Eric Beerbohm proposes institutional remedies for dealing with them. Beerbohm questions prevailing theories of democracy for failing to account for our dual position as both citizens and subjects. Showing that the obligation to participate in the democratic process is even greater when we risk serving as accomplices to wrongdoing, Beerbohm argues for a distinctive division of labor between citizens and their representatives that charges lawmakers with the responsibility of incorporating their constituents' moral principles into their reasoning about policy. Grappling with the practical issues of democratic decision making, In Our Name engages with political science, law, and psychology to envision mechanisms for citizens seeking to avoid democratic complicity.

Author: George Sidney Brett
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Ethics
Languages : en
Pages : 344

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Author: Moorhead Kennedy
Publisher: Transaction Publishers
ISBN: 9781412837842
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 332

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Book Description
These new essays prepared to commemorate the centennial of the National Institute of Social Sciences have been carefully crafted to deal with an overriding concern of our time--those elements in political rule that go beyond legal rights and responsibilities into the moral requirements of effective governance. The principal theme of this book is presidential leadership. The presidency personifies government authority, including moral authority. In the first part of this book most of the essays argue that the moral authority of leaders depends on high personal standards as well as policy outcomes. The second segment on the rule of law and character raises considerations not limited to the presidency. Character and the authority that derives from it are demonstrated most effectively not by what someone does in his or her personal life, but in the moral values of the causes espoused and effectiveness in pursuing them. In the realm of international affairs, governmental leadership must wrestle with the moral and constitutional guidelines known as "reasons of state." Under what circumstances is it morally acceptable for a leader or government to practice deception upon the citizenry, to overthrow other governments, to bomb civilians? Many contributors raise the issue of what permits a government to take actions that would be immoral or illegal in individuals or groups. The final segment expands and deepens this theme by exploring the work and role of non-governmental agencies that influence both leaders and citizens in the public arena. In short, at a period that brings to a close a period in which the presidency has become more visible as well as more prominent, this collective effort sheds new light on classic themes. It will be an invaluable guide as we enter the new century. The contributors include an illustrious galaxy of public officials and political scientists, including Madeleine K. Albright, Judith A. Best, Betty Glad, C. Lowell Harriss, Travis Beal Jacobs, Ruth P. Morgan, Stanley A. Renshon, Donald L. Robinson and William vanden Heuvel. Moorhead Kennedy is author of several works on terrorism and recipient of the Medal of Valor from the Department of State. R. Gordon Hoxie is founding president of C.W. Post College, chancellor of Long Island University, and founding president of the Center for the Study of the Presidency. He is author and editor of many books, and founding editor of Presidential Studies Quarterly. Brenda Repland studied at the University of Oregon and Harvard Business School. She was formerly corporate account manager at Digital Equipment Corporation, and current president and managing partner of the Moorhead Kennedy Group.

Author: Freedom House
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1538112035
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 1265

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Book Description
Freedom in the World, the Freedom House flagship survey whose findings have been published annually since 1972, is the standard-setting comparative assessment of global political rights and civil liberties. The survey ratings and narrative reports on 195 countries and fifteen territories are used by policymakers, the media, international corporations, civic activists, and human rights defenders to monitor trends in democracy and track improvements and setbacks in freedom worldwide. The Freedom in the World political rights and civil liberties ratings are determined through a multi-layered process of research and evaluation by a team of regional analysts and eminent scholars. The analysts used a broad range of sources of information, including foreign and domestic news reports, academic studies, nongovernmental organizations, think tanks, individual professional contacts, and visits to the region, in conducting their research. The methodology of the survey is derived in large measure from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and these standards are applied to all countries and territories, irrespective of geographical location, ethnic or religious composition, or level of economic development.

Author: Michael J. Perry
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 0521115183
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 225

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Book Description
This important new work elaborates and defends an account of the political morality of liberal democracy.

Author: Henry Barbera
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1000944115
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 326

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Book Description
These new essays prepared to commemorate the centennial of the National Institute of Social Sciences have been carefully crafted to deal with an overriding concern of our time--those elements in political rule that go beyond legal rights and responsibilities into the moral requirements of effective governance. The principal theme of this book is presidential leadership. The presidency personifies government authority, including moral authority.In the first part of this book most of the essays argue that the moral authority of leaders depends on high personal standards as well as policy outcomes. The second segment on the rule of law and character raises considerations not limited to the presidency. Character and the authority that derives from it are demonstrated most effectively not by what someone does in his or her personal life, but in the moral values of the causes espoused and effectiveness in pursuing them. In the realm of international affairs, governmental leadership must wrestle with the moral and constitutional guidelines known as "reasons of state." Under what circumstances is it morally acceptable for a leader or government to practice deception upon the citizenry, to overthrow other governments, to bomb civilians?Many contributors raise the issue of what permits a government to take actions that would be immoral or illegal in individuals or groups. The final segment expands and deepens this theme by exploring the work and role of non-governmental agencies that influence both leaders and citizens in the public arena. In short, at a period that brings to a close a period in which the presidency has become more visible as well as more prominent, this collective effort sheds new light on classic themes. It will be an invaluable guide as we enter the new century.The contributors include an illustrious galaxy of public officials and political scientists, including Madeleine K. Albright, Judith A. Best, Betty Glad, C. Lowell Harriss, Travis Beal Jacobs, Ruth P. Morgan, Stanley A. Renshon, Donald L. Robinson and William vanden Heuvel.