The Institutional Laundry
How the Public May Keep Their Hands Clean
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21700828 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Norman Kirby (0000-0001-5759-9112, University of Glasgow, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2023 |
| Volume | 27 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 539-560 |
| Publication date | 2023-12-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The Journal of Ethics (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1382-4554 • E-ISSN: 1572-8609 |
| Publisher | Springer Science and Business Media LLC (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1007/s10892-023-09450-9 |
| OpenAlex | W4386126825 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 53 |
A number of recent authors have argued for the problem of ‘democratic dirty hands’. At least within a democracy, public officers can be rightly said to act in the name of the public; and thus, as agents to principals, the dirty hands of public officers are, ultimately attributable to that public. Even more troubling, so the argument goes, since dirty hands are necessary for public officers in any stable political order, then such democratic dirty hands are necessary for any stable democracy. Our dirt is the unavoidable cost of democratic survival. In this paper, I offer an argument against this disconcerting conclusion. My central claim is that proponents of ‘democratic dirty hands’ have missed the import of another feature of contemporary governance: public institutions. Public institutions, as organisational agents, intermediate the relationship between public officer and public; and in so doing, the dirt necessary for stability may be ‘laundered’: the public may still gain the benefit of a public officer’s hands, but remain clean of the dirt. I illustrate this case by an extended discussion of the case of La Comisión Internacional contra la Impunidad en Guatemala (‘CICIG’)
Democracy · Dirt · Law and economics · Officer · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Engineering · Global Peace and Security Dynamics · Law · Political Philosophy and Ethics · Public Administration · War, Ethics, and Justification
Moral Responsibility in Collective Contexts
Collective and Corporate Responsibility
Punishing the Dirty
Dirtying One’s Hands by Sharing a Polity with Others
Conceptualizing Personal and Institutional Integrity
Dirty Hands and the Complicity of the Democratic Public
In Our Name
Politics and moral character
Public and Private Morality
Democratic Dirty Hands
Philosophy and Public Affairs
Achieving the Way
Group Duties
Complicity
Institutional Integrity
Group Agents and Moral Status
Handbook on Corruption, Ethics and Integrity in Public Administration
Group Agency
On Complicity and Compromise
Analysing Institutional Liability for Child Sexual Abuse in England and Wales and Australia
Collective Virtue
From Corporate Moral Agency to Corporate Moral Rights
The Legitimacy of Global Governance Institutions
In Defence of Democratic Dirty Hands
To Punish or to Forgive
Columbia Journal of Transnational Law
Plural and Conflicting Values
Dirty hands and clean gloves
Containing Large-Scale Criminal Violence Through Internationalized Prosecution
Dirty Hands
An ‘Institution-First’ Conception of Public Integrity
Institutions and Individuals
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |