Your search for: "Political Ethics"

This volume investigates the causes of the political, economic, and moral problems of today's Africa and provides a framework for the reconstruction of modern African states. The author focuses on the interaction between religion and politics throughout history and on the role of the Church in ...

This volume investigates the causes of the political, economic, and moral problems of today's Africa and provides a framework for the reconstruction of modern African states. The author focuses on the interaction between religion and politics throughout history and on the role of the Church in postcolonial Africa. In order to develop a basis for African political and religious ethics, he uses an interdisciplinary approach that draws from political theory, history, and social and religious ethics. Among the issues discussed are ethnicity, mismanagement, corruption, and the African concept of power.

In this work, Peter Breiner explores the implications of Max Weber's political sociology for political judgment and democratic theory. In the process, he rejects what is problematic and retains what is valuable in the theorist's political thought and then uses the results to elaborate upon and ...

In this work, Peter Breiner explores the implications of Max Weber's political sociology for political judgment and democratic theory. In the process, he rejects what is problematic and retains what is valuable in the theorist's political thought and then uses the results to elaborate upon and extend democratic theory. Breiner demonstrates the tension between the subjective and objective dimensions of Weber's logic of rationality, and describes how Weber exploits this tension in judging the feasibility of social and political forms such as socialism, radical democracy, capitalism, and the nation. Breiner develops a concept of participatory democracy from within Weber's logic of power and legitimate domination. Unlike any of the many existing arguments for participatory democracy, it claims that direct participation in politics requires that citizens be willing to take moral risks and take responsibility for the paradoxical outcomes of political action. The book situates Weber in relation to greatpolitical theorists of the past, such as Thucydides, Machiavelli, Rousseau, and Gramsci, as well as engaging some of the most important Weberian scholarship. Rigorous, tightly argued, and concise, the volume will interest both political and social theorists: the former because of the focus on judgment and participatory democracy and the latter for the author's thorough and novel treatment of Weber.

How should politicians act? When should they try to lead public opinion and when should they follow it? Should politicians see themselves as experts, whose opinions have greater authority than other people's, or as participants in a common dialogue with ordinary citizens? When do virtues like ...

How should politicians act? When should they try to lead public opinion and when should they follow it? Should politicians see themselves as experts, whose opinions have greater authority than other people's, or as participants in a common dialogue with ordinary citizens? When do virtues like toleration and willingness to compromise deteriorate into moral weakness? In this innovative work, Andrew Sabl answers these questions by exploring what a democratic polity needs from its leaders. He concludes that there are systematic, principled reasons for the holders of divergent political offices or roles to act differently.Sabl argues that the morally committed civil rights activist, the elected representative pursuing legislative results, and the grassroots organizer determined to empower ordinary citizens all have crucial democratic functions. But they are different functions, calling for different practices and different qualities of political character. To make this case, he draws on political theory, moral philosophy, leadership studies, and biographical examples ranging from Everett Dirksen to Ella Baker, Frances Willard to Stokely Carmichael, Martin Luther King Jr. to Joe McCarthy.Ruling Passions asks democratic theorists to pay more attention to the "governing pluralism" that characterizes a diverse, complex democracy. It challenges moral philosophy to adapt its prescriptions to the real requirements of democratic life, to pay more attention to the virtues of political compromise and the varieties of human character. And it calls on all democratic citizens to appreciate "democratic constancy": the limited yet serious standard of ethical character to which imperfect democratic citizens may rightly hold their leaders--and themselves.