Ethics and Politics: Cases and Comments

Learn to recognize and assess the strengths and weaknesses of moral arguments in the making of public policy with ETHICS AND POLITICS: CASES AND COMMENTS. You'll find coverage of the ethics of process: the morally questionable means—violence, deception, and corruption—that are most commonly used by public officials, as well as the ethics of policy: the valuable but often competing ends that public officials strive to achieve. Conflicting values, scarce resources, and stakes as high as life and death combine with the duties of public office to make choices among policy goals controversial and morally difficult. Each ethical issue is paired with case studies in contemporary American politics. For example, the controversy over the treatment of detainees at Guantanamo Bay; or issues during the campaign and election of 2004.

Gutmann (University of Pennsylvania) and Thompson (Harvard University) offer a casebook for courses in ethics, political behavior, and public policy, featuring scenarios derived from actual decisions. Cases in the first part of the book scrutinize the morally questionable means used to achieve political goals, such as violence, deception, and secrecy, and cases in the second part illustrate the ethical problems of determining the goals of public policy, with treatment of areas such as distributive justice and equal opportunity. The Iran-Contra Affair, the Iraq attack, and stem cell research are a few of the issues examined. Recommended readings, section introductions, case comments, and discussion questions are included. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Amy Gutmann is President of the University of Pennsylvania, where she is Professor of Politics with secondary appointments in the Department of Philosophy, the Annenberg School of Communication, and the Graduate School of Education. She is also Laurance S. Rockefeller University Professor Emeritus of Princeton University where she was provost, dean of the faculty, and founding director of the University Center of Human Values. Her books include IDENTITY IN DEMOCRACY; DEMOCRATIC EDUCATION; COLOR CONSCIOUS: THE POLITICAL MORALITY OF RACE (co-authored with K. Anthony Appiah); and DEMOCRACY AND DISAGREEMENT, AND WHY DELIBERATIVE DEMOCRACY? (both co-authored with Dennis Thompson). She has published over 100 articles and essays in democratic theory, education, and the ethics of public life. In 2003, Gutmann was awarded Harvard University's Centennial Medal for graduate alumni who have made exceptional contributions to society." She has been elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a fellow of the National Academy of Education, and a W.E.B. Dubois Fellow of the American Academy of Political and Social Science."

Dennis F. Thompson is Professor of Government and the Alfred North Whitehead Professor of Political Philosophy in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. He is also a professor in the John F. Kennedy School of Government, the founding Director of the University Center for Ethics and the Professions, and Senior Adviser to the President of the University. Thompson's most recent book is JUST ELECTIONS: CREATING A FAIR ELECTORAL PROCESS IN THE UNITED STATES. His other books include: DEMOCRACY AND DISAGREEMENT, (jointly authored with Amy Gutmann), THE DEMOCRATIC CITIZEN: SOCIAL SCIENCE AND DEMOCRATIC THEORY IN THE 20TH CENTURY, JOHN STUART MILL and REPRESENTATIVE GOVERNMENT, ETHICS IN CONGRESS: FROM INDIVIDUAL TO INSTITUTIONAL CORRUPTION, and POLITICAL ETHICS AND PUBLIC OFFICE, which won the American Political Science Association's Gladys M. Kammerer award for the best political science publication in the field of U.S. National policy in 1987. His articles have appeared in such journals as the American Political Science Review, Philosophy & Public Affairs, Political Theory, and Ethics. Professor Thompson's current teaching and research concentrate on democratic theory and political ethics.