THE PROJECT VOLUME - Chapter 6

Open Cite VOLUME

Publisher:  Pragma Publishing
Online publication date:  December 2023
Chapter DOI:  https://doi.org/10.62483/63252193

Typical Conflicts of Duty and Prudence Facing Voters in Democracies

Corrado Fumagalli , Michele Giavazzi and Valeria Ottonelli

ABSTRACT

This chapter offers a fine-grained and nuanced normative map of ethical reasoning about the best way to vote. It maps the principles, duties and considerations that may legitimately drive voters’ choices. In so doing, the chapter provides normative guidance and a better ethical understanding of the relation between normatively relevant reasons connected with the act of voting. So far, the literature has focused mainly on the conflicts between common-good-based reasons and self-interest-based reasons. This chapter challenges such a simplistic distinction to demonstrate that different conceptions of duties and prudence can influence how we think of the ethical dilemmas that voters may face. It also demonstrates that the appreciation and assessment of specific circumstances (effectiveness and reliability of the candidates that are being selected, the expressive impact of one’s vote and its consequences on the political system, the specific heuristics required to collect the relevant information, and preoccupations for the stability and legitimacy of the political system) can impact on how voters balance different duties with their self-interest. Against this backdrop, we model three scenarios: allegiance to a group, the common good, and strategic reasoning, self-interest and distancing, party allegiance and the common good.

Citation
Fumagalli, Corrado, Michele Giavazzi, and Valeria Ottonelli. 2023. ‘Typical Conflicts of Duty and Prudence Facing Voters in Democracies’. In Reconstructing Democracy in Times of Crisis - A Voter-Centred Perspective, ed. Annabelle Lever. Paris: Pragma Publishing, 187–216. https://doi.org/10.62483/63252193.
Fumagalli, C., Giavazzi, M., & Ottonelli, V. (2023). Typical Conflicts of Duty and Prudence Facing Voters in Democracies. In A. Lever (Ed.), Reconstructing Democracy in Times of Crisis—A Voter-Centred Perspective (pp. 187–216). Pragma Publishing. https://doi.org/10.62483/63252193
Fumagalli, Corrado, Michele Giavazzi, and Valeria Ottonelli. 2023. ‘Typical Conflicts of Duty and Prudence Facing Voters in Democracies’. In Reconstructing Democracy in Times of Crisis - A Voter-Centred Perspective, edited by Annabelle Lever, 187–216. Paris: Pragma Publishing. https://doi.org/10.62483/63252193.
Fumagalli, C., Giavazzi, M. and Ottonelli, V. (2023) ‘Typical Conflicts of Duty and Prudence Facing Voters in Democracies’, in A. Lever (ed.) Reconstructing Democracy in Times of Crisis - A Voter-Centred Perspective. Paris: Pragma Publishing, pp. 187–216. Available at: https://doi.org/10.62483/63252193.
Fumagalli, Corrado, Michele Giavazzi, and Valeria Ottonelli, ‘Typical Conflicts of Duty and Prudence Facing Voters in Democracies’, in Reconstructing Democracy in Times of Crisis - A Voter-Centred Perspective, ed. by Annabelle Lever (Paris: Pragma Publishing, 2023), pp. 187–216 <https://doi.org/10.62483/63252193>
Fumagalli, Corrado, et al. ‘Typical Conflicts of Duty and Prudence Facing Voters in Democracies’. Reconstructing Democracy in Times of Crisis - A Voter-Centred Perspective, edited by Annabelle Lever, Pragma Publishing, 2023, pp. 187–216, https://doi.org/10.62483/63252193.
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