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Moral Responsibility of Public Officials: The Problem of Many Hands

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  • Thompson, Dennis F.

Abstract

That many different officials contribute in many different ways to decisions and policies in the modern state makes it difficult to ascribe moral responsibility to any official. The usual responses to this problem—based on concepts of hierarchical and collective responsibility—distort the notion of responsibility. The idea of personal responsibility—based on causal and volitional criteria—constitutes a better approach to the problem of ascribing responsibility to public officials. Corresponding to each of these criteria are types of excuses that officials use in defending the decisions they make. An analysis of the conditions under which the excuses eliminate or mitigate responsibility provides a foundation for accountability in a democracy.

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  • Thompson, Dennis F., 1980. "Moral Responsibility of Public Officials: The Problem of Many Hands," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 74(4), pages 905-916, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:cup:apsrev:v:74:y:1980:i:04:p:905-916_16
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    11. Andreas Schedler, 1998. "The Normative Force of Electoral Promises," Journal of Theoretical Politics, , vol. 10(2), pages 191-214, April.
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    22. Marc J. C. van den Homberg & Caroline M. Gevaert & Yola Georgiadou, 2020. "The Changing Face of Accountability in Humanitarianism: Using Artificial Intelligence for Anticipatory Action," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 8(4), pages 456-467.
    23. Gary Fooks & Anna Gilmore & Jeff Collin & Chris Holden & Kelley Lee, 2013. "The Limits of Corporate Social Responsibility: Techniques of Neutralization, Stakeholder Management and Political CSR," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 112(2), pages 283-299, January.
    24. Ipatova, Anna & Rogozin, Dmitriy, 2014. "Alignment of State and Municipal Officials of the Russian Federation: Professional Ethics, Political Views, Features of the Interaction with the Central Government and the Local Population," Published Papers re9024, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration.
    25. Prasetyono, Pipin, 2017. "Facilitating payments: an ethical problem in the Indonesian bureaucracy," MPRA Paper 97656, University Library of Munich, Germany.

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