Abstract
Suppose that the leaders of your state are committing a wrong: they are fighting an obviously unjust war; or they are oppressing a minority group; or refusing to contribute to the alleviation of suffering in another part of the world. In a democracy one way that citizens can put a check on the activities of their leaders is to vote them out of office. Election time is coming round and you have to decide whether you have a moral obligation to go to the polls and cast your vote against the party in power.
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Notes
Larry May, Sharing Responsibility, Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1992, p. 124.
Christopher Kutz, Political Complicity: Ethics and Law for a Collective Age, Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2000, p. 3.
Margaret Gilbert, ‘On Feeling Guilt for What One Has Done’, Living Together: Rationality, Sociality, and Obligation, Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 1996.
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© 2007 Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Nature America Inc.
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Thompson, J. (2007). Political Complicity: Democracy and Shared Responsibility. In: Primoratz, I. (eds) Politics and Morality. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230625341_9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230625341_9
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
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