Restoring responsibility : ethics in government, business, and healthcare / Dennis F. Thompson.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Thompson, Dennis F. (Dennis Frank), 1940-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Political ethics.

Medical ethics.

Business ethics.

Responsibility.

Physical Description:

viii, 349 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, UK ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2005.

Summary:

In This Important Collection of Essary 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 about public ethics so much 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). Among the questions Thompson addresses are: How can we hold officials in large organizations accountable for policies shaped by many different people? Are advisors responsible for the consequences of the advice they give? How can the conflict between secrecy and accountability be resolved? Why do political campaigns corrupt even honest legislators? Why do elections fail to make representatives accountable? His institutional approach also shows why the ethical principles needed in hospital decision making differ from those needed in doctor-patient relations; why good character is neither necessary nor sufficient for the ethical management of corporations; and how democratic responsibility should be promoted in a global society. Combining theory and practice with many concrete examples and proposals for reform, these essays could be used in courses in applied ethics, legal process, political science, and political theory. They can be read with profit by professionals and by students in graduate schools of public policy, law, public health, medicine, journalism, management, and business.

Contents:

Introduction: The Need for Institutional Responsibility 1

Part I Demands of Institutional Politics

1 The Problem of Many Hands 11

2 The Responsibility of Advisers 33

3 Bureaucracy and Democracy 50

4 Judicial Responsibility 71

5 Representatives in the Welfare State 99

Part II Varieties of Institutional Failure

6 Democratic Secrecy 129

7 Mediated Corruption 143

8 Election Time 174

9 Hypocrisy and Democracy 209

10 Private Life and Public Office 227

Part III Extensions of Institutional Responsibility

11 Restoring Distrust 245

12 The Institutional Turn in Professional Ethics 267

13 Hospital Ethics 278

14 Conflicts of Interest in Medicine 290

15 The Privatization of Business Ethics 300

16 Democratic Theory and Global Society 318.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0521838304

0521547229

OCLC:

54007138

Online:

Publisher description