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Moral Responsibility of Public Officials: The Problem of Many Hands
Abstract
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 responsibility to public officials. Corresponding to each of these criteria are types of excuses that officials use in defending the decisions they make. An analysis of the conditions under which the excuses eliminate or mitigate responsibility provides a foundation for accountability in a democracy.
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“As a matter of fact, other intelligent, autonomous entities with 'no soul to blame and no body to kick' (Asaro, 2012), such as, e.g. bureaucracies and corporates, may in themselves generate gaps in culpability.”
From Four Responsibility Gaps with Artificial Intelligence: Why they Matter and How to Address them (2021) · cites this paper as Thompson, 1980
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“In this way, the introduction of AI makes the 'problem of many hands' (Bovens, 1998; Thompson, 1980) more acute: data coming from different sources are introduced and enriched at different points in the data chain.”
From Four Responsibility Gaps with Artificial Intelligence: Why they Matter and How to Address them (2021) · cites this paper as Thompson, 1980
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“3 This has been classically identified as “the problem of many hands” (Bovens, 1998; Thompson, 1980).”
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Metadata
- Authors
- Thompson, D. F.
- Affiliations
- Princeton University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Thompson, Dennis F.
- ORCID
- Thompson, Dennis F.
- Venue
- American Political Science Review
- Publisher
- Cambridge University Press (CUP)
- Published
- 1980-12
- Volume
- 74
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 905-916
- ISSN
- 0003-0554 (ISSN-L)
- 1537-5943
- OpenAlex
- W2017558343
- Cited by
- 651
- References
- 48
- Citations by year
- 2026: 71 · 2025: 43 · 2024: 39 · 2023: 23 · 2022: 27 · 2021: 36 · 2020: 39 · 2019: 51 · 2018: 28 · 2017: 29 · 2016: 35 · 2015: 20 · 2014: 21 · 2013: 16 · 2012: 12
- FWCI
- 11.76
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- American Political Science Review (publishedVersion)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- DigitalGeorgetown (Georgetown University Library) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Philosophy › Philosophical Ethics and Theory
- Social Sciences › Public Administration › Public Policy and Administration Research
- Social Sciences › Political Science and International Relations › Political Philosophy and Ethics
- Keywords
- moral responsibility, public officials, personal responsibility, collective responsibility, excuses, accountability, democratic accountability, causal criteria, state decision-making
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