Agents and Realms of Morality in Politics

Human beings are always on the crossroad of choice. They have to evaluate different options, and ethics provides them with the criteria to do so. Politics as one of the spheres of human life is no exception. It is impossible and futile to do without morality in politics. We can only talk about different moral principles that can or should be observed within the public realm. This paper, addresses the question of which areas of politics are in need of moral rules, and who are to be moral agents in these areas. Findings of this research, which is carried out in the area of descriptive ethics, show that the following parts of politics are in need of moral rules, namely, the formation of political society, justification of the obedience relationship between rulers and the ruled (legitimacy), the limits of government’s authority, methods and tools of enforcing authority, and public relations among citizens. The scope of the involvement of morality in politics can also be divided into two sections on the basis of the moral agent. In this regard, we can talk about rulers’ as well as citizenship’s morality, which is sometimes called as political or civic virtue.