Ethics in Politics: The Rights and Obligations of Individual Political Agents
This is a volume that I co-edited with Emily Crookston and Jonathan Trerise. It was published by Routledge in 2017. You can find a complete copy of the volume here or here.
Here’s a blurb:
Within the field of political philosophy, the role of states, governments, and institutions has dominated research. This has led to a dearth of literature that examines what individuals—e.g., voters, lobbyists, and politicians—ought (or ought not) to do. Ethics in Politics: The Rights and Obligations of Individual Political Agents meets this need, providing a timely discussion of normative questions concerning political agents and the systems in which they act. The book contains eighteen original chapters by leading scholars which cover a range of topics including irrational voting, bribery, partisanship, and political lying. Ethics in Politics is a unique and accessible resource for students, researchers, and all interested readers, and sheds light on important but underexplored issues in ethics and political philosophy.
Here’s the table of contents:
Introduction
Emily Crookston, David Killoren, and Jonathan Trerise
Part I: Lying in Politics
Chapter 1: Murderers at the Ballot Box: When Politicians May Lie to Bad Voters
Jason Brennan
Chapter 2: The Greatest Liar Has His Believers: The Social Epistemology of Political Lying
Kay Mathiesen and Don Fallis
Part II: Nonideal Politicking
Chapter 3: Nonideal Politicians or Nonideal Circumstances? Rethinking Dirty Hands
Jaime Ahlberg
Chapter 4: In Defense of Partisanship
Neil Sinhababu
Chapter 5: A Defense of Senate Obstructionism
Shane Courtland
Chapter 6: Conviction and Open-Mindedness: A Lesson on Political Revision from Adam Smith
Jon Rick
Chapter 7: Voter Ignorance and Deliberative Democracy
Chad Flinders
Part III: The Ethics of Voter Reasoning
Chapter 8: Must We Vote for the Common Good?
Annabelle Lever
Chapter 9: Gender and the Ethics of Political Representation
Julinna Oxley
Chapter 10: A Demarcation Problem for Political Discourse
David Killoren, Jonathan Lang, and Bekka Williams
Chapter 11: Public Reason and Its Limits: The Role of Truth in Politics
J.B. Delston
Part IV: Why Vote?
Chapter 12: Why Bad Votes Can Nonetheless Be Cast and Why Bad Voters May Cast Them
Patrick Taylor Smith
Chapter 13: The Rationality of Voting and Duties of Elected Officials
Marcus Arvan
Chapter 14: A Defence of the Right Not to Vote
Ben Saunders
Chapter 15: Expanding on the Wrongness of Bribery: The Morality of Casting a Vote
Erik Roark
Part V Arguing on Others’ Behalf
Chapter 16: Devil’s Advocates: On the Ethics of Unjust Legal Advocacy
Michael Huemer
Chapter 17: Prosecutors, Guilty Pleas, and the Consequences of a Conviction
Zachary Hoskins
Chapter 18: Are Lobbyists Lawyers?
Suzanne Dovi and Jesse McCain