Abstract: Publicity about the private lives of public officials can damage the democratic process by distracting citizens from more important questions of policy and performance of government. We should judge whether publicity is justified by considering its effects on political accountability—the capacity of citizens to assess the actions of officials. To give accountability its proper place, there is a need to recognize some significant differences between personal and political ethics, reject some reasons (such as a right of privacy) for limiting publicity, and formulate some criteria for determining to what extent information about private lives should be publicized.
Publication Year: 2001
Publication Date: 2001-04-01
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref']
Access and Citation
Cited By Count: 6
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