Public Ethics

Political realists are accustomed to argue that ethical considerations had no place in public affairs. This is always a debatable view - not least because realism habitually employed a crude utilitarian morality rather than being totally amoral - ethical considerations have played an ever more prominent role in the thinking and actions of policy makers and politicians. Increasingly citizens expect policies not only to be efficient and effective according to some purely economic or prudential calculation, but also to be equitable and just in certain respects as well. Both the private and the public morality of politicians and public officials has come under ever greater scrutiny, with their actions being examined for their moral consistency and probity. They are expected to be procedurally correct, refraining from bias and partiality, and to respect particular moral side constraints, notably human rights considerations. The essays collected together in this volume explore how far these are reasonable expectations. Starting with the classic debates on dirty hands, they discuss the degree to which it is possible to either clean up politicians or politics.