The Moral Authority of Government

The Moral Authority of Government

Author: Henry Barbera

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2023-05-31

Total Pages: 326

ISBN-13: 1000944115

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These new essays prepared to commemorate the centennial of the National Institute of Social Sciences have been carefully crafted to deal with an overriding concern of our time--those elements in political rule that go beyond legal rights and responsibilities into the moral requirements of effective governance. The principal theme of this book is presidential leadership. The presidency personifies government authority, including moral authority.In the first part of this book most of the essays argue that the moral authority of leaders depends on high personal standards as well as policy outcomes. The second segment on the rule of law and character raises considerations not limited to the presidency. Character and the authority that derives from it are demonstrated most effectively not by what someone does in his or her personal life, but in the moral values of the causes espoused and effectiveness in pursuing them. In the realm of international affairs, governmental leadership must wrestle with the moral and constitutional guidelines known as "reasons of state." Under what circumstances is it morally acceptable for a leader or government to practice deception upon the citizenry, to overthrow other governments, to bomb civilians?Many contributors raise the issue of what permits a government to take actions that would be immoral or illegal in individuals or groups. The final segment expands and deepens this theme by exploring the work and role of non-governmental agencies that influence both leaders and citizens in the public arena. In short, at a period that brings to a close a period in which the presidency has become more visible as well as more prominent, this collective effort sheds new light on classic themes. It will be an invaluable guide as we enter the new century.The contributors include an illustrious galaxy of public officials and political scientists, including Madeleine K. Albright, Judith A. Best, Betty Glad, C. Lowell Harriss, Travis Beal Jacobs, Ruth P. Morgan, Stanley A. Renshon, Donald L. Robinson and William vanden Heuvel.


The Moral Authority of Government

The Moral Authority of Government

Author: Henry Barbera

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2023-05-31

Total Pages: 274

ISBN-13: 1000950891

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These new essays prepared to commemorate the centennial of the National Institute of Social Sciences have been carefully crafted to deal with an overriding concern of our time--those elements in political rule that go beyond legal rights and responsibilities into the moral requirements of effective governance. The principal theme of this book is presidential leadership. The presidency personifies government authority, including moral authority.In the first part of this book most of the essays argue that the moral authority of leaders depends on high personal standards as well as policy outcomes. The second segment on the rule of law and character raises considerations not limited to the presidency. Character and the authority that derives from it are demonstrated most effectively not by what someone does in his or her personal life, but in the moral values of the causes espoused and effectiveness in pursuing them. In the realm of international affairs, governmental leadership must wrestle with the moral and constitutional guidelines known as "reasons of state." Under what circumstances is it morally acceptable for a leader or government to practice deception upon the citizenry, to overthrow other governments, to bomb civilians?Many contributors raise the issue of what permits a government to take actions that would be immoral or illegal in individuals or groups. The final segment expands and deepens this theme by exploring the work and role of non-governmental agencies that influence both leaders and citizens in the public arena. In short, at a period that brings to a close a period in which the presidency has become more visible as well as more prominent, this collective effort sheds new light on classic themes. It will be an invaluable guide as we enter the new century.The contributors include an illustrious galaxy of public officials and political scientists, including Madeleine K. Albright, Judith A. Best, Betty Glad, C. Lowell Harriss, Travis Beal Jacobs, Ruth P. Morgan, Stanley A. Renshon, Donald L. Robinson and William vanden Heuvel.


The Moral Authority of Government

The Moral Authority of Government

Author: Moorhead Kennedy

Publisher:

Published: 2018

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781003417781

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These new essays prepared to commemorate the centennial of the National Institute of Social Sciences have been carefully crafted to deal with an overriding concern of our time--those elements in political rule that go beyond legal rights and responsibilities into the moral requirements of effective governance. The principal theme of this book is presidential leadership. The presidency personifies government authority, including moral authority.In the first part of this book most of the essays argue that the moral authority of leaders depends on high personal standards as well as policy outcomes. The second segment on the rule of law and character raises considerations not limited to the presidency. Character and the authority that derives from it are demonstrated most effectively not by what someone does in his or her personal life, but in the moral values of the causes espoused and effectiveness in pursuing them. In the realm of international affairs, governmental leadership must wrestle with the moral and constitutional guidelines known as "reasons of state." Under what circumstances is it morally acceptable for a leader or government to practice deception upon the citizenry, to overthrow other governments, to bomb civilians?Many contributors raise the issue of what permits a government to take actions that would be immoral or illegal in individuals or groups. The final segment expands and deepens this theme by exploring the work and role of non-governmental agencies that influence both leaders and citizens in the public arena. In short, at a period that brings to a close a period in which the presidency has become more visible as well as more prominent, this collective effort sheds new light on classic themes. It will be an invaluable guide as we enter the new century.The contributors include an illustrious galaxy of public officials and political scientists, including Madeleine K. Albright, Judith A. Best, Betty Glad, C. Lowell Harriss, Travis Beal Jacobs, Ruth P. Morgan, Stanley A. Renshon, Donald L. Robinson and William vanden Heuvel.


Moral Authority, Ideology, And The Future Of American Social Welfare

Moral Authority, Ideology, And The Future Of American Social Welfare

Author: Andrew W. Dobelstein

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2018-02-20

Total Pages: 304

ISBN-13: 0429967381

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This book suggests how welfare can be re-formed by taking the American ideological context as a road map for which welfare changes are possible and which are not, laying out a framework for welfare as America enters the twenty-first century.


The Moral Purpose of the State

The Moral Purpose of the State

Author: Christian Reus-Smit

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2009-11-02

Total Pages: 214

ISBN-13: 1400823250

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This book seeks to explain why different systems of sovereign states have built different types of fundamental institutions to govern interstate relations. Why, for example, did the ancient Greeks operate a successful system of third-party arbitration, while international society today rests on a combination of international law and multilateral diplomacy? Why did the city-states of Renaissance Italy develop a system of oratorical diplomacy, while the states of absolutist Europe relied on naturalist international law and "old diplomacy"? Conventional explanations of basic institutional practices have difficulty accounting for such variation. Christian Reus-Smit addresses this problem by presenting an alternative, "constructivist" theory of international institutional development, one that emphasizes the relationship between the social identity of the state and the nature and origin of basic institutional practices. Reus-Smit argues that international societies are shaped by deep constitutional structures that are based on prevailing beliefs about the moral purpose of the state, the organizing principle of sovereignty, and the norm of procedural justice. These structures inform the imaginations of institutional architects as they develop and adjust institutional arrangements between states. As he shows with detailed reference to ancient Greece, Renaissance Italy, absolutist Europe, and the modern world, different cultural and historical contexts lead to profoundly different constitutional structures and institutional practices. The first major study of its kind, this book is a significant addition to our theoretical and empirical understanding of international relations, past and present.


Do Morals Matter?

Do Morals Matter?

Author: Joseph S. Nye

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

Published: 2020

Total Pages: 273

ISBN-13: 0190935960

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What is the role of ethics in American foreign policy? The Trump Administration has elevated this from a theoretical question to front-page news. Should ethics even play a role, or should we only focus on defending our material interests? In Do Morals Matter? Joseph S. Nye provides a concise yet penetrating analysis of how modern American presidents have-and have not-incorporated ethics into their foreign policy. Nye examines each presidency during theAmerican era post-1945 and scores them on the success they achieved in implementing an ethical foreign policy. Alongside this, he evaluates their leadership qualities, explaining which approaches work and which ones do not.


Moral Agency and the Politics of Responsibility

Moral Agency and the Politics of Responsibility

Author: Cornelia Ulbert

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2017-11-13

Total Pages: 220

ISBN-13: 1351781863

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At a time when globalization has side-lined many of the traditional, state-based addressees of legal accountability, it is not clear yet how blame is allocated and contested in the new, highly differentiated, multi-actor governance arrangements of the global economy and world society. Moral Agency and the Politics of Responsibility investigates how actors in complex governance arrangements assign responsibilities to order the world and negotiate who is responsible for what and how. The book asks how moral duties can be defined beyond the territorial and legal confines of the nation-state; and how obligations and accountability mechanisms for a post-national world, in which responsibility remains vague, ambiguous and contested, can be established. Using an empirical as well as a theoretical perspective, the book explores ontological framings of complexity emphasizing emergence and non-linearity, which challenge classic liberal notions of responsibility and moral agency based on the autonomous subject. Moral Agency and the Politics of Responsibility is perfect for scholars from International Relations, Politics, Philosophy and Political Economy with an interest in the topical and increasingly popular topics of moral agency and complexity.


States and Legitimacy: The Politics of Moral Authority

States and Legitimacy: The Politics of Moral Authority

Author: Bruce Gilley

Publisher:

Published: 2007

Total Pages: 357

ISBN-13: 9781109882858

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This dissertation attempts to define, measure, account for, and evaluate the importance of state legitimacy. First, state legitimacy is defined according to three constitutive sub-types---legality, justification, and consent. Data reflecting these sub-types is then gathered for 72 states containing 83% of the world's population in the late 1990s and early 2000s. This measure of legitimacy is then used to investigate the conditions that are associated with greater and lesser legitimacy. The results show that four main factors---development, democracy, rights, and governance---can explain most of the variations in legitimacy across the 72 states. Analysis of legitimacy relative to performance and performance relative to income levels shows the extent to which individual states deviate from this general picture. This statistical exploration is followed by a consideration of the normative basis of state legitimacy. The emphasis here is on the moral reasoning that might underlie the empirical findings. It is argued that states are morally legitimate to the extent that they make reasonable and consensual tradeoffs among the four components of development, democracy, rights, and governance (as well as an added component of global obligations) in light of their resource constraints and particularistic demands. The next chapter considers the process through which legitimacy is generated and renewed within a political system. The emphasis here is on the way in which legitimacy both shapes and is shaped by the state and its performance. An extended case study of Uganda illustrates the mechanisms of legitimation, state performance, and state building. Finally, legitimacy is considered as an explanatory variable of things like policy effectiveness, state-building, internal conflict, institutional change, democratization, and international behavior when alternative explanations are taken into account. The argument is made that legitimacy constitutes the single biggest omitted variable in contemporary political science and its inclusion helps to clarify many political outcomes. A concluding chapter considers the implications of this study for both politics and the study of it.


Moral Politics

Moral Politics

Author: George Lakoff

Publisher:

Published: 1996

Total Pages: 438

ISBN-13:

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Lakoff takes a fresh look at how we think and talk about politics and shows that political and moral ideas develop in systematic ways from our models of ideal families. Arguing that conservatives have exploited the connection between morality, the famility and politics, while liberals have failed to recognize it, Lakoff expalins why the conservative moral position has not been effectively challenged.


The Problem of Political Authority

The Problem of Political Authority

Author: Michael Huemer

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2012-10-29

Total Pages: 391

ISBN-13: 1137281669

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The state is often ascribed a special sort of authority, one that obliges citizens to obey its commands and entitles the state to enforce those commands through threats of violence. This book argues that this notion is a moral illusion: no one has ever possessed that sort of authority.