A Theory of Justice
A01=Eric Beerbohm
Accountability
Activism
Analogy
Attempt
Author_Eric Beerbohm
Ballot
Basic structure doctrine
Cambridge University Press
Category=JPHV
Category=QDTQ
Category=QDTS
Charles Beitz
Citizens (Spanish political party)
Citizenship
Complicity
Consideration
Constitutionalism
Criticism
Decision-making
Deliberation
Deliberative democracy
Democracy
Derek Parfit
Direct democracy
Distributive justice
Election
Employment
eq_bestseller
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
Ethics
Explanation
George Kateb
Global justice
Governance
Harvard University
Inference
Institution
Jeremy Waldron
John Rawls
Justice as Fairness
Legislation
Legislature
Liberalism
Methodology
Moral agency
Moral responsibility
Morality
Obligation
Oxford University Press
Patriotism
Philip Pettit
Philosopher
Philosophy
Political Liberalism
Political philosophy
Politics
Practical reason
Principle
Public policy
Public sphere
Rationality
Reason
Reflective equilibrium
Regime
Representative democracy
Requirement
Robert Nozick
Self-interest
State of affairs (sociology)
Suggestion
Tax
Theory
Thomas Nagel
Thought
Voting
Product details
- ISBN 9780691154619
- Weight: 624g
- Dimensions: 152 x 235mm
- Publication Date: 22 Jul 2012
- Publisher: Princeton University Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Hardback
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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.
Eric Beerbohm is assistant professor of government and social studies and director of graduate fellowships for the Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard University.
