Abstract
If we wish to assess the morality of elected officials, we must understand
their function as our representatives and then infer how they can fulfill this
function. I propose to treat the class of elected officials as a profession,
so that their morality is a role morality and it is functionally determined.
If we conceive the role morality of legislators to be analogous to the ethics
of other professions, then this morality must be functionally defined by the
purpose that legislators are to fulfill once in office. Hence, the role
morality of legislators will largely be determined by our theory of
representation. We will need not a normative account of their role, but
an empirical explanatory account. In David Hume's terms, the
morality of role holders is one of “artificial” duties,
that is to say, duties defined by their functional fit with the
institutional purposes of a profession. Our most difficult problem,
therefore, is to understand the role of our elected representatives.
Publisher
Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Subject
General Social Sciences,Philosophy
Cited by
12 articles.
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