W sprawie „dekalogu” etyki politycznej liberalnej demokracji
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Date
2006
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Wydawnictwo Naukowe WNPiD UAM w Poznaniu
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On the ''Decalogue'' of Political Ethics and Liberal Democracy
Abstract
The issue of morality in politics has been bothering political scientists since time
immemorial. Throughout all this time attempts have been made to create a system of
political ethics. These attempts have mainly been characterized by the tendency to
make this ethical system universal (in conformity with a controversial assumption that
it is possible – and indispensable – to offer a single, commonly observed ethical system)
on the one hand, and by failing to consistently distinguish political norms of ethics
from those of other kinds on the other.
The proposal of a system of ethical norms presented below is based on the Judaic-
Christian Decalogue. What is significant though, is that it only concerns the form
– in particular the first ‘commandment’ is an unsurpassable (yet not the only one feasible)
formula to combine the actually antinomic fundamental values; in terms of the
content the ethics of liberal democracy (including political ethics) is a contradiction of
the Decalogue.
It should be pointed out that the fact that the liberal-democratic ‘decalogue’ is written
in the first person singular is by no means a coincidence; and this is so because unlike
in authoritarian ethics, where the system of norms comes from the giver who is not
actually subjected to them, liberal-democratic ethics (both the political and ethical aspects)
does not distinguish between the givers of the norms and the remaining subjects
obligated to observe the norms they did not make themselves.
Also, the list of norms presented may be considered incomplete, and this is actually
the case. The same concerns the Judaic-Christian Decalogue also, in fact it is only the
first commandment that is not accidental, the one that provides a key to the interpretation
of the entire ethical system; in the ‘old’ decalogue the key is the principle of rules
and obedience, in the present one – the principle of mutual acknowledgement of both
parties’ equal status.
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Citation
Środkowoeuropejskie Studia Polityczne, 2006, nr 2, s. 5-8.
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1731-7517