Political Ethics

Wayne Eastman ()
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Wayne Eastman: Rutgers University

A chapter in Lectures on Business Ethics, Political Ethics, and Reputational Ethics, 2026, pp 83-119 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract In this lecture on political ethics, I pursue two related projects. First, I suggest that Heath’s Market Failures Approach can be adapted to create a democratic failures approach (DFA) that would provide helpful normative guidance for politicians, bureaucrats, judges, and citizens. The key components of a successful future DFA include the following: (1) a widely accepted theory of democratic success under which electorally and ideologically motivated partisan actions and inactions very often redound to the public weal; (2) a widely accepted theory of democratic failures that identifies circumstances under which electorally and ideologically motivated partisan actions-inactions are socially detrimental; and (3) a yin-yang upholding of ethically conservative and ethically liberal principal and agent poles that minimize cheating and help to counter democratic failure. I will use cases drawn from my career as a local politician to consider how my four identities approach to business ethics and the DFA as I envision it work to license and forbid partisan actions and inactions. I will claim that a beta version of the DFA is ready for application now, even if the path to translating it into theory turns out to be a steep and slippery one.

Date: 2026
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:sprchp:978-3-032-13618-3_4

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DOI: 10.1007/978-3-032-13618-3_4

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