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The Political Privacy Dilemma: Private Lives and Public Office
Journal of Applied Philosophy
Swansea University Author:
John William Devine
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DOI (Published version): 10.1111/japp.12683
Abstract
Should political leaders have a right to privacy? Incursions by the traditional media and new media into the private lives of political leaders are commonplace. Are such incursions ethically justifiable? Prima facie, the question of ‘political privacy’ seems to involve a conflict between a politicia...
| Published in: | Journal of Applied Philosophy |
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| ISSN: | 0264-3758 1468-5930 |
| Published: |
Wiley
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| Online Access: |
Check full text
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| URI: | https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa63373 |
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| Abstract: |
Should political leaders have a right to privacy? Incursions by the traditional media and new media into the private lives of political leaders are commonplace. Are such incursions ethically justifiable? Prima facie, the question of ‘political privacy’ seems to involve a conflict between a politician’s selfinterestin retaining a protected private realm and citizens’ public interest in knowing about their representative’s private life. Indeed, this is the structure that the debate has typically assumed. I challenge this orthodox view by demonstrating that there is a public interest in political privacy grounded in the relationship between privacy and political judgement. I argue that the political privacy debate should be recast as principally a conflict between two different aspects of the public interest. This conflict presents a dilemma for democratic theory: in providing voters with private information relevant to the evaluation of political leaders’ suitability for, and performance in, office, we threaten toundermine the conditions necessary to attract candidates of judgement to office and for political leaders to judge well once in office. |
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| Item Description: |
In Press |
| College: |
Faculty of Science and Engineering |
| Funders: |
Swansea University |