D F Thompson
Biographic Data
| ID | 447015 |
|---|---|
| NAME | D F Thompson |
| GIVEN NAMES | D F |
| FAMILY NAME | Thompson |
| SIGNATURE | THOMPSON D F |
| AFFILIATIONS | Harvard University Press |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-1938-6436 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 54 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 796 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 54 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1962 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2024 |
| H-INDEX | 13 |
Conflict of interest in government: Avoiding ethical and conceptual mistakes
The Professional Ethics of Witnessing Professionals
Professionals have an ethical obligation to bear witness to climate change. They should report, warn, criticize, and lobby to bring attention to the existential threat that climate change poses. But they also have an obligation to respect the knowledge that is the basis of their authority to witness. Witnessing carries risks to this professional authority. Witnessing professionals should avoid letting bias distort their advocacy, simplifying thei…
The crisis of democracy and the science of deliberation
Citizens can avoid polarization and make sound decisions
Moral Conflict and Political Consensus
Theories of Institutional Corruption
Normative theorists of corruption have developed an institutional conception that is distinct from both the individualist approaches focused on quid pro quo exchanges and other institutional approaches found in the literature on developing societies. These theorists emphasize the close connection between patterns of corruption and the legitimate functions of institutions. The corruption benefits the institution while undermining it. Reforms there…
Political Representation
John Rawls, Political Liberalism
John Rawls’ Political Liberalism is much more than just an effort to correct what Rawls saw as an error in his masterwork, A Theory of Justice. The political liberalism of Political Liberalism stands on its own. It is liberal in a new way, and political in the right way. By examing what makes the theory liberal and what makes it political, the chapter brings out a feature of the theory that has not been sufficiently emphasized—its dynamic charact…
Responsibility for Failures of Government: The Problem of Many Hands
The problem of many hands—the difficulty of assigning responsibility in organizations in which many different individuals contribute to decisions and policies—stands in the way of investigating and correcting the failures of government. The problem can be mitigated by giving greater attention to the design of processes of organizational responsibility. An independent investigation can identify both the individual actions and the structural defect…
Valuing Compromise for the Common Good
Pursuing the common good in a pluralist democracy is not possible without making compromises. Yet the spirit of compromise is in short supply in contemporary American politics. The permanent campaign has made compromise more difficult to achieve, as the uncompromising mindset suitable for campaigning has come to dominate the task of governing. To begin to make compromise more feasible and the common good more attainable, we need to appreciate the…
A systemic approach to deliberative democracy
'Deliberative democracy' is often dismissed as a set of small-scale, academic experiments. This volume seeks to demonstrate how the deliberative ideal can work as a theory of democracy on a larger scale. It provides a new way of thinking about democratic engagement across the spectrum of political action, from towns and villages to nation states, and from local networks to transnational, even global systems. Written by a team of the world's leadi…
Representing future generations: Political presentism and democratic trusteeship
Democracy is prone to what may be called presentism – a bias in the laws in favor of present over future generations. I identify the characteristics of democracies that lead to presentism, and examine the reasons that make it a serious problem. Then I consider why conventional theories are not adequate to deal with it, and develop a more satisfactory alternative approach, which I call democratic trusteeship. Present generations can represent futu…
Constitutional Character: Virtues and Vices in Presidential Leadership
Presidents and presidential candidates should be assessed more than they usually are on the basis of what may be called constitutional character. This refers to the disposition to act, and motivate others to act, according to principles that constitute the democratic process. Its virtues and vices are distinct from personal or private morality. Constitutional character includes such qualities as sensitivity to basic rights, respect for due proces…
The Primary Purpose of Presidential Primaries
Dennis F. Thompson analyzes the capacity of presidential primaries to provide a test of the constitutional character of candidates. He argues that the primary process should be judged to be more or less democratic on the basis of the effective opportunities it gives voters to assess the democratic commitments of the candidates
The Mindsets of Political Compromise
Political compromise is difficult in American democracy even though no one doubts it is necessary. It is difficult for many reasons, including the recent increase in political polarization that has been widely criticized. We argue that the resistance to compromise cannot be fully appreciated without understanding its source in the democratic process itself, especially as conducted in the U.S. The incursion of campaigning into governing in America…
Obama's Ethics Agenda: The Challenge of Coordinated Change
Obama's "ethics agenda" is the most ambitious ever set out by a new administration. It promises a tougher approach not only to the usual problems such as conflict of interest and the revolving door, but also to broader challenges such as political influence on career officials and lack of transparency in government. The goals of the agenda are a step forward insofar as they focus more on improving the democratic process than disciplining politica…
Electoral Simultaneity: Expressing Equal Respect
The principle of simultaneity—that citizens should vote as far as possible at the same time—is more significant than is usually appreciated. It is based on a fundamental value of democratic theory, and it has substantial implications for electoral practice. It also invites further normative and empirical research. The most important value that simultaneity expresses is a form of equality—equal respect. First, if citizens have only information the…
Deliberative Democratic Theory and Empirical Political Science
Although empirical studies of deliberative democracy have proliferated in the past decade, too few have addressed the questions that are most significant in the normative theories. At the same time, many theorists have tended too easily to dismiss the empirical findings. More recently, some theorists and empiricists have been paying more attention to each other's work. Nevertheless, neither is likely to produce the more comprehensive understandin…
À la recherche d'une responsabilité du contrôle
Trois cas différents survenus aux États-Unis dans lesquels la responsabilité de certains individus a été mise en cause - dans une grande entreprise, dans l'Église catholique et dans l'armée - mettent en lumière les logiques de distribution de responsabilité au sein des organisations. En attirant l'attention sur les failles institutionnelles, en particulier sur le contrôle rétrospectif (généralement négligé), il ne s'agit pas de disqualifier l'idé…
Democracy in Time: Popular Sovereignty and Temporal Representation
Why Deliberative Democracy?
The most widely debated conception of democracy in recent years is deliberative democracy--the idea that citizens or their representatives owe each other mutually acceptable reasons for the laws they enact. Two prominent voices in the ongoing discussion are Amy Gutmann and Dennis Thompson. In Why Deliberative Democracy? , they move the debate forward beyond their influential book, Democracy and Disagreement . What exactly is deliberative democrac…
Democratic Theory and Global Society
In the early days of the Europe an Union, the Casagrande family left their home in northern Italy to find work in Germany. Although their new jobs as migrant laborers would certainly not make them rich, the prospects for the future looked better, especially for their young son, Donato, who could take advantage of the social services and educational opportunities. They enrolled Donato in the Realschule in Munich, and after his father died his moth…
Restoring Responsibility: Ethics in Government, Business, and Healthcare
In this important collection of essays Dennis Thompson argues for a more robust conception of responsibility in public life than prevails in contemporary democracies. He suggests that we should stop thinking so much about public ethics in terms of individual vices (such as selfishness or sexual misconduct) and start thinking about it more in terms of institutional vices (such as abuse of power and lack of accountability). Combining theory and pra…
Election Time: Normative Implications of Temporal Properties of the Electoral Process in the United States
Elections take place at intervals, most citizens vote on the same day, and the electoral outcome is irrevocable until the next election. Each of these temporal properties-periodicity, simultaneity, and finality-is grounded in fundamental democratic values. Analyzing the properties shows how and why several anomalies in electoral theory and practice in the United States should be eliminated. Together the properties mark off electoral politics as a…
Deliberative Democracy Beyond Process
Deliberative Democracy Beyond Process
Deliberative Democratic Theory and Empirical Political Science
Although empirical studies of deliberative democracy have proliferated in the past decade, too few have addressed the questions that are most significant in the normative theories. At the same time, many theorists have tended too easily to dismiss the empirical findings. More recently, some theorists and empiricists have been paying more attention to each other's work. Nevertheless, neither is likely to produce the more comprehensive understandin…
Moral Responsibility of Public Officials: The Problem of Many Hands
That many different officials contribute in many different ways to decisions and policies in the modern state makes it difficult to ascribe moral responsibility to any official. The usual responses to this problem-based on concepts of hierarchical and collective responsibility-distort the notion of responsibility. The idea of personal responsibility-based on causal and volitional criteria-constitutes a better approach to the problem of ascribing …
The Possibility of Administrative Ethics
Representing future generations: Political presentism and democratic trusteeship
Democracy is prone to what may be called presentism – a bias in the laws in favor of present over future generations. I identify the characteristics of democracies that lead to presentism, and examine the reasons that make it a serious problem. Then I consider why conventional theories are not adequate to deal with it, and develop a more satisfactory alternative approach, which I call democratic trusteeship. Present generations can represent futu…
The Mindsets of Political Compromise
Political compromise is difficult in American democracy even though no one doubts it is necessary. It is difficult for many reasons, including the recent increase in political polarization that has been widely criticized. We argue that the resistance to compromise cannot be fully appreciated without understanding its source in the democratic process itself, especially as conducted in the U.S. The incursion of campaigning into governing in America…
Theories of Institutional Corruption
Normative theorists of corruption have developed an institutional conception that is distinct from both the individualist approaches focused on quid pro quo exchanges and other institutional approaches found in the literature on developing societies. These theorists emphasize the close connection between patterns of corruption and the legitimate functions of institutions. The corruption benefits the institution while undermining it. Reforms there…
Election Time: Normative Implications of Temporal Properties of the Electoral Process in the United States
Elections take place at intervals, most citizens vote on the same day, and the electoral outcome is irrevocable until the next election. Each of these temporal properties-periodicity, simultaneity, and finality-is grounded in fundamental democratic values. Analyzing the properties shows how and why several anomalies in electoral theory and practice in the United States should be eliminated. Together the properties mark off electoral politics as a…
Mediated Corruption: The Case of the Keating Five
The Keating Five case exemplifies a form of a political corruption that is increasingly common in contemporary politics but frequently neglected in contemporary political science. I focus on this form by developing a concept ofmediated corruption, which links the acts of individual officials to effects on the democratic process. Unlike conventional corruption, mediated corruption does not require that the public official act with a corrupt motive…
Deliberative Democracy Beyond Process
Democracy in Time: Popular Sovereignty and Temporal Representation
Democratic Secrecy
Paradoxes of Government Ethics
Democratic Theory and Global Society
Responsibility for Failures of Government: The Problem of Many Hands
The problem of many hands—the difficulty of assigning responsibility in organizations in which many different individuals contribute to decisions and policies—stands in the way of investigating and correcting the failures of government. The problem can be mitigated by giving greater attention to the design of processes of organizational responsibility. An independent investigation can identify both the individual actions and the structural defect…
The Education of a Founding Father: The Reading List for John Witherspoon's Course in Political Theory, as Taken by James Madison
The Professional Ethics of Witnessing Professionals
Professionals have an ethical obligation to bear witness to climate change. They should report, warn, criticize, and lobby to bring attention to the existential threat that climate change poses. But they also have an obligation to respect the knowledge that is the basis of their authority to witness. Witnessing carries risks to this professional authority. Witnessing professionals should avoid letting bias distort their advocacy, simplifying thei…
Electoral Simultaneity: Expressing Equal Respect
The principle of simultaneity—that citizens should vote as far as possible at the same time—is more significant than is usually appreciated. It is based on a fundamental value of democratic theory, and it has substantial implications for electoral practice. It also invites further normative and empirical research. The most important value that simultaneity expresses is a form of equality—equal respect. First, if citizens have only information the…
À la recherche d'une responsabilité du contrôle
Trois cas différents survenus aux États-Unis dans lesquels la responsabilité de certains individus a été mise en cause - dans une grande entreprise, dans l'Église catholique et dans l'armée - mettent en lumière les logiques de distribution de responsabilité au sein des organisations. En attirant l'attention sur les failles institutionnelles, en particulier sur le contrôle rétrospectif (généralement négligé), il ne s'agit pas de disqualifier l'idé…
Ethics and Politics: Cases and Comments
Contents. Introduction. Recommended Reading. Part One: THE ETHICS OF PROCESS. 1. Violence. Introduction. The Decision to Use the Atomic Bomb. Alternatives to the Bomb. Bombing the Bunker in Baghdad. Intervention in Somalia. Why Attack Iraq? Interrogating Detainees. Recommended Reading. 2. Deception and Secrecy. Introduction. Disinformation for Qaddafi. The Iran-Contra Affair. George W. Bush on Iraqs Nuclear Weapons. A Standard of Candor. A Tale o…
Conflict of interest in government: Avoiding ethical and conceptual mistakes
Valuing Compromise for the Common Good
Pursuing the common good in a pluralist democracy is not possible without making compromises. Yet the spirit of compromise is in short supply in contemporary American politics. The permanent campaign has made compromise more difficult to achieve, as the uncompromising mindset suitable for campaigning has come to dominate the task of governing. To begin to make compromise more feasible and the common good more attainable, we need to appreciate the…
The Politics of the Rainbow Nation: Truth, Legitimacy, and Memory in South Africa
La relation intellectuelle entre verite, memoire et amnistie, qui fonde l'etablissement et le fonctionnement de la Commission verite et reconciliation (TRC) en Afrique du Sud postapartheid, au-dela de la volonte de reconciliation, s'inscrit dans une configuration de rhetorique ethique dont les differents discours peuvent etre compris comme des strategies de legitimation politique, pour ou contre le regime. Ces enjeux d'ethique politique sont abor…
Truth Commissions
Private Life and Public Office
Publicity about the private lives of public officials can damage the democratic process by distracting citizens from more important questions of policy and performance of government. We should judge whether publicity is justified by considering its effects on political accountability—the capacity of citizens to assess the actions of officials. To give accountability its proper place, there is a need to recognize some significant differences betwe…
Political Theory and Political Judgment
Few political theorists today try to show how the principles of theory should guide our judgments of policy. Theorists think that their job is done when they have explained the principles, or (more commonly) when they have interpreted the principles of other theorists. The connection between the principles and the policies of governments is left for citizens themselves to make. Yet making that connection—exercising political judgment—is an essent…
New Laws for Old
The Bosch Case
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The Brown Shoe Case
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Harmonization of Laws
Retribution and the Distribution of Punishment
Journal Article Retribution and the Distribution of Punishment Get access D. F. Thompson D. F. Thompson Harvard University Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The Philosophical Quarterly, Volume 16, Issue 62, January 1966, Pages 59–63, https://doi.org/10.2307/2217882 Published: 01 January 1966
Apathy and Participation: Mass Politics in Western Societies
Democracy and the Governing of the University
This article argues that although the case for popular participation in university government is not the same as the case for participation in a democratic state, some of the principles and structures of representative democracy can contribute to furthering the traditional purposes of the uni versity. The institution of the university council or senate is examined, and the role of students in decisions on academic matters is discussed. Finally, t…
The Means of Dealing with Criminals: Social Science and Social Philosophy
The Education of a Founding Father: The Reading List for John Witherspoon's Course in Political Theory, as Taken by James Madison
John Stuart Mill and Representative Government
John Stuart Mill and Representative Government
Bentham's Theory of the Modern State, by Nancy L. Rosenblum
Moral Responsibility of Public Officials: The Problem of Many Hands
That many different officials contribute in many different ways to decisions and policies in the modern state makes it difficult to ascribe moral responsibility to any official. The usual responses to this problem-based on concepts of hierarchical and collective responsibility-distort the notion of responsibility. The idea of personal responsibility-based on causal and volitional criteria-constitutes a better approach to the problem of ascribing …
The Ethics of Representation
C_an political philosophy contribute anything to a code of ethics for the United States Senate? Past experience is not encouraging. Politicians have rarely sought the advice of political philosophers, who in turn have seldom offered any of much practical relevance. Neither have philosophers done any better trying to put their own theories into practice. Recall Edmund Burke's high-toned Speech to the Electors of Bristol in 1774, warning his consti…
Political Theory and Political Judgment
Few political theorists today try to show how the principles of theory should guide our judgments of policy. Theorists think that their job is done when they have explained the principles, or (more commonly) when they have interpreted the principles of other theorists. The connection between the principles and the policies of governments is left for citizens themselves to make. Yet making that connection—exercising political judgment—is an essent…
The Possibility of Administrative Ethics
Ethics and Politics: Cases and Comments
Contents. Introduction. Recommended Reading. Part One: THE ETHICS OF PROCESS. 1. Violence. Introduction. The Decision to Use the Atomic Bomb. Alternatives to the Bomb. Bombing the Bunker in Baghdad. Intervention in Somalia. Why Attack Iraq? Interrogating Detainees. Recommended Reading. 2. Deception and Secrecy. Introduction. Disinformation for Qaddafi. The Iran-Contra Affair. George W. Bush on Iraqs Nuclear Weapons. A Standard of Candor. A Tale o…
Paradoxes of Government Ethics
Mediated Corruption: The Case of the Keating Five
The Keating Five case exemplifies a form of a political corruption that is increasingly common in contemporary politics but frequently neglected in contemporary political science. I focus on this form by developing a concept ofmediated corruption, which links the acts of individual officials to effects on the democratic process. Unlike conventional corruption, mediated corruption does not require that the public official act with a corrupt motive…
Moral Disagreement in a Democracy
Moral disagreement about public policies—issues such as abortion, affirmative action, and health care—is a prominent feature of contemporary American democracy. Yet it is not a central concern of the leading theories of democracy. The two dominant democratic approaches in our time—procedural democracy and constitutional democracy—fail to offer adequate responses to the problem of moral disagreement. Both suggest some elements that are necessary i…
Deliberating about Bioethics
In some sense, bioethics was built on conflicts. Abortion, physician-assisted suicide, patients' demand for autonomy all are staple and contentious issues. And the controversies continue to proliferate. What forum best serves such debates? A look at political theories of democracy can help answer that question. The most promising for bioethics debates are theories that ask citizens and officials to justify any demands for collective action by giv…
Privacy, Politics, and the Press
Democratic Disagreement
What is the value of deliberative democracy? What are its limits? The thoughtful commentaries in this volume help us answer these questions more fully than we did in Democracy and Disagreement. The first group of commentators calls into question the desirability of deliberation. In reply, we develop our views about the value of deliberation. The second group agrees that deliberation is desirable, and some of these commentators even call for a gre…
Democratic Theory and Global Society
Democratic Secrecy
Political science (49 works) · Law (43 works) · Politics (37 works) · Sociology (34 works) · Democracy (26 works) · Law (26 works) · Philosophy (21 works) · Political Philosophy and Ethics (18 works) · Law and economics (17 works) · Computer Science (13 works)