Practice of making moral judgments about political action and political agents
Political ethics (also known as political morality or public ethics) is the practice of making moral judgments about political action and political agents.[1] It covers two areas: the ethics of process (or the ethics of office), which covers public officials and their methods,[2][3] and the ethics of policy (or ethics and public policy), which concerns judgments surrounding policies and laws.[4][5][6]
The core values and expectations of political morality have historically derived from the principles of justice. However, John Rawls defends the theory that the political concept of justice is ultimately based on the common good of the individual rather than on the values one is expected to follow.[7]
While trying to make moral judgments about political issues, people tend to leverage their own perceived definition of morality. The concept of morality itself derives from several moral foundations. Morality, seen through the lens of these foundations, shapes peoples' judgments about political actions and agents.
^Stuart Hampshire (1978). Public and private morality. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN0-521-22084-X. OCLC3728767.
^Thompson, Dennis F. (1987). Political ethics and public office. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press. ISBN0-674-68605-5. OCLC14818873.
^Amy Gutmann; Dennis F. Thompson, eds. (2006). Ethics and politics: cases and comments (4th ed.). Belmont, CA: Thomson/Wadsworth. ISBN0-534-62645-9. OCLC60588998.
^Bluhm, William Theodore; Robert A. Heineman (2007). Ethics and public policy : method and cases. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson Prentice Hall. ISBN978-0-13-189343-6. OCLC70060951.
^Wolff, Jonathan (2011). Ethics and public policy: a philosophical inquiry. Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge. ISBN978-0-415-66852-1. OCLC694393623.