JOHN F. KENNEDY SCHOOL OF GOVERNMENT
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
API-601: THE RESPONSIBILITIES OF PUBLIC ACTION
FALL 2005
SECTION D
Archon Fung
Associate Professor of Public Policy
Taubman 356
archon_fung@harvard.edu
Office Hours: Thursday, 3-5 (please sign up) or by appointment
M/W 2.40 – 4 (Wiener)
Teaching Fellow: Margaret Sadock (email: msadock@hds.harvard.edu)
C1: Tuesday, 1.10 – 2.30, 124 Mount Auburn, Rm. 160
C2: Tuesday, 2.40 – 4.00, 124 Mount Auburn, Rm. 160
GETTING STARTED
Come prepared for the first session. Pick up assignments and readings from the Course
Materials Office and books from the Harvard Coop.
API-601: THE RESPONSIBILITIES OF PUBLIC ACTION
Those who seek to govern well are continually and inescapably confronted in their political,
professional, and personal decisions with questions of value. This course is designed to provoke
critical thinking about the moral challenges of public policymaking and the moral responsibilities
of public actors in a democracy.
The course examines two questions: (1) What should governments do? (2) What should public
actors do? The first question requires us to consider public principles that guide good, just, and
legitimate public policy. The second question requires us to consider the many and often
competing obligations, commitments, and values that should guide public actors inside and
outside government, particularly when there is disagreement about specifying and interpreting
public principles, and disagreement about what is good, just, and legitimate public policy.
The conviction that guides both the course’s content and its pedagogy is that moral and political
views can and should be grounded in reasons, and that reasoned changes of view are possible.
Moreover, the course is premised on the view that although there are a number of ways in which
questions of value might be explored, one of those ways—the methods of analytic philosophical
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thought—provides an important tool for the critical and reflective thinking that is necessary for
successful governance. The course therefore provides regular practice in developing the skills of
analytic moral reasoning, and invites reflection about one’s moral and political commitments
through an ongoing engagement with classmates and authors (who may have different
commitments).
API-601 is required for students in the Master of Public Policy program. Others may be admitted
with permission of the instructor.
REQUIREMENTS AND EVALUATION
Class Participation
You are expected to come to each session prepared to discuss the day’s assignment, readings and
cases, and to make thoughtful contributions to the learning of your classmates. You are also
expected to attend the Tuesday discussion group conducted by your Teaching Fellow. For the
first five weeks, attendance it mandatory, afterwards voluntary and will be counted favorably
towards your class participation grade. For the first five weeks of the term, you are also required
to work in study groups. Afterwards, working in study groups is voluntary, and again will be
counted favorably towards your participation grade. Class participation counts for 20% of your
grade.
On-Line Participation
I am experimenting this semester with incorporating discussion from a web-log into the course.
After each class, I will post reflections, comments, or questions to which students can respond
using the comment feature. If you would like to post a topic for comment and discussion, send it
to Margaret or me via email (archon_fung@harvard.edu or msadock@hds.harvard.edu) and one
of us will post it for you. The time for discussion in both sections and lectures is necessarily
limited, and this format may allow more fruitful exchange. The URL for the weblog is:
http://www.archonfung.net/weblog/responsibility
Participation in this on-line forum will count toward your class participation grade.
Written Assignments
For each class meeting, a written exercise is assigned. You are required to satisfactorily
complete four of these assignments. They are due at the start of the class in which the topic is
considered, and should not exceed 750 words. The first assignment will not be graded, and the
remaining assignments will count for 40% of your course grade. There will be four deadlines
during the term by which the respectively next assignment will have to be submitted. You cannot
submit a paper on a day later than the day for which it was assigned. Late assignments will not
be accepted.
Final Take-home Examination
The final exercise will consist of essay questions that are to be answered in no more than 2,000
words in total. Examinations will be available at 12:00 pm, Wednesday, Dec. 14, 2005, and are
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due by 4:00 pm, Friday, January 13, 2006. Examinations may be returned by mail or courier, but
emailed or faxed submissions are not acceptable. The final exam counts for 40% of your grade.
Late examinations will be heavily penalized.
READINGS
Many of the conceptual readings ask you to stretch your mind in what might be an unaccustomed
way. The challenge is worthwhile. Serious discussion about questions of value in public service
requires at least some exposure to serious writings, both to build a conceptual vocabulary and to
see examples of good moral reasoning. The readings have been selected not only for their
importance, but also for their accessibility. Still, you will find some passages hard-going. Study
questions are provided to guide you through the rough spots.
We will read substantial portions of two books, which have been ordered in paperback editions at
the Harvard Coop:
Dennis F. Thompson, Political Ethics and Public Office (Harvard Univ. Press, 1987).
Arthur Isak Applbaum, Ethics for Adversaries: The Morality of Roles in Public and
Professional Life (Princeton Univ. Press, 1999).
Two other books, also available at the Coop, are recommended as background and supplement:
Adam Swift, Political Philosophy: A Beginner’s Guide for Students and Politicians
(Polity Press, 2001).
William Kymlicka, Contemporary Political Philosophy, 2nd Edition (Oxford Univ. Press,
2001).
Also recommended as background:
Mathias Risse, “How to Write a Philosophy Paper”
Unless otherwise indicated, all other readings for the course are available through the Course
Materials Office.
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INTRODUCTION
1. Roles and Principles
Wednesday, September 14
Case: Legislative Discretion
“Senator McGrail and the Death Penalty/Senator Johnson and the Death Penalty” (1
page).
Edmund Burke, “Speech to the Electors of Bristol” (1774), in The Works of the Right
Honorable Edmund Burke, Volume II (1906), pp. 186-187.
Recommended (on political ethics):
Dennis F. Thompson, “Legislative Ethics,” Political Ethics and Public Office (1987), pp.
96-122. [BOOK]
Recommended (General Background):
Judith N. Shklar, “Liberalism of Fear,” in Liberalism and the Moral Life, ed. Nancy L.
Rosenblum (1989), pp. 21-38, 255-256.
Anthony Weston, “Definition,” in A Rulebook for Arguments, 2nd ed. (1992), pp. 89-95.
Robert Audi (editor), The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy (1995), entries on
“circular reasoning” (pp. 124), “formal fallacy” (pp. 271-273), and “informal fallacy”
(pp. 373-376).
Mathias Risse, “Some Remarks on Writing a Philosophy Paper”.
PART I. POLITICAL PRINCIPLES AND PUBLIC POLICY
2. Liberty and Its Limits I: Freedom of Conscience
Monday, September 19
Case: Headscarves in Turkey, the Pledge of Allegiance, and Religious Liberty
European Court of Human Rights, Leyla Şahin v. Turkey (No. 44774/98) Judgment, 29
June 2004, excerpts.
Minersville School District v. Gobitis, 310 U.S. 586 (1940) (opinion of Justice
Frankfurter), excerpts.
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West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette, 319 U.S. 624 (1943) (opinion of
Justice Jackson and dissenting opinion of Justice Frankfurter), excerpts.
3. Liberty and Its Limits II: Speech and Harm
Wednesday, September 21
Case: Radio Television Libre des Mille Collines (RTLM) and the Rwandan Genocide
United Nations (Rwanda International Criminal Tribunal), “The Prosecutor v. Ferdinand
Nahimana, Jean-Bosco Barayagwiza, and Hassan Ngeze” (3 December 2003), excerpts.
“Village of Skokie v. National Socialist Party of America, Supreme Court of Illinois”
(1978), in Philosophy of Law, eds. Joel Feinberg and Hyman Gross, 4th ed. (1991), pp.
311-314.
*Frederick Schauer, “The Phenomenology of Speech and Harm,” Ethics 103:4 (1993),
pp. 635-653.
4. Liberty and Its Limits III: Paternalism
Monday, September 26
Case: Cigarettes
*Dennis F. Thompson, “Paternalistic Power,” in Political Ethics and Public Office
(1987), pp. 148-177. [BOOK]
5. Liberty and Its Limits IV: Moralism and the Limits of Choice
Wednesday, September 28
Case: Surrogate Motherhood
*Elizabeth S. Anderson, “Is Women’s Labor a Commodity?” Philosophy & Public
Affairs 19:1 (1990), pp. 71-92.
Judith Andre, “Blocked Exchanges: A Taxonomy,” Ethics 103:1 (1992), pp. 29-47.
1st Written Assignment Due by Today
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6. Equality I: Distributive Justice
Monday, October 3
Case: Distributing Educational Resources
William Kymlicka, sections 1-3 from “Liberal Equality,” in Contemporary Political
Philosophy (2002), pp. 53-75.
Jonathan Kozol, “Children of the City Invincible (Chap. 4)” in Savage Inequalities
(1993), pp. 133-174.
National Research Council, Committee on Education Finance. “Equity I: Spending on
Schools” in Making Money Matter: Financing America’s Schools (Washington, D.C.:
National Academies Press, 1999). Selections, pp. 89-100.
7. Equality II: Applying the Concept of Equality
Wednesday, October 5
Case: Allocating a Scarce Drug
Frederick Schauer, “Multiple Sclerosis and the Allocation of Betaseron” (1 page).
Thomas Nagel, “Equality,” in Mortal Questions (1979), pp. 106-127.
Monday, October 10– NO CLASS (COLUMBUS DAY)
8. Equality III: Political Equality
Wednesday, October 12
Case: Racial Districting
Shaw vs. Reno, Selections (O’Connor majority opinion, Stevens dissent).
Lani Guinier, “Second Proms and Second Primaries,” Boston Review 17:5 (2002).
Robert Dahl, “A Theory of the Democratic Process” in Democracy and Its Critics (New
Haven: Yale University Press, 1989): pp. 106-115 (up to “Problems in the Theory”).
“Elections with No Meaning” (editorial), New York Times (February 21, 2004), pp. A1.
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9. Democracy and Deliberation
Monday, October 17
Case: Public Deliberation in Rebuilding New York City
Archon Fung and Susan Rosegrant “Listening to the City: What Should Be Built at
Ground Zero” in Ethics and Politics: Cases and Comments 4th Edition, ed. Amy
Gutmann and Dennis Thompson (Belmont, CA: Thomson Wadsworth, 2006): 303-310.
Elster, Jon, “The Market and the Forum: Three Varieties of Political Theory,” in
Foundations of Social Choice Theory, ed. Jon Elster (New York: Cambridge Univ. Press,
1989), pp. 103 – 132.
10. Democracy and Difference I: Community Values
Wednesday, October 19
Case: Gay Marriage
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, Prefect,
“Considerations Regarding Proposals to Give Legal Recognition to Unions between
Homosexual Persons” (2003), pp. 1-9.
Stephen Macedo, “Homosexuality and the Conservative Mind,” in Marriage and Same
Sex Unions, eds. Wardle, Strasser, Duncan, and Coolidge (Westport, CT: Praeger, 2003),
pp. 97-114.
Recommended:
John Rawls, Justice as Fairness: A Restatement (1999), pp. 14-38.
John Rawls, “The Idea of Public Reason Revisited,” sect. 1-3, in John Rawls: Collected
Papers (1999), pp. 573-591.
11. Democracy and Difference II: Accommodation
Monday, October 24
Case: Religious Fundamentalism and Public Education
Gregory M. Stankiewicz, “The Controversial Curriculum,” in Ethics and Politics: Cases
and Comments [3rd edition], eds. Amy Gutmann and Dennis Thompson (1997), pp. 327333.
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Stephen Macedo, “Multiculturalism and the Religious Right” and “Diversity and the
Problem of Justification,” in Diversity and Distrust: Civic Education in a Multicultural
Democracy (2000), pp. 153-187, 313-321.
2nd Written Assignment Due By Today
PART II: POLITICAL PRINCIPLES ACROSS POLITICAL BOUNDARIES
12. Cross-Cultural Conflicts of Value
Wednesday, October 26
Case: Gender Bias in Theistan
Bernard Williams, Morality: An Introduction to Ethics (1972, 2nd ed. 1993), pp. 20-26.
Susan Okin, “Is Multiculturalism Bad for Women?” in Is Multiculturalism Bad for
Women?, eds. Joshua Cohen et al. (Princeton Univ. Press, 1999), pp. 9-24.
Azizah al-Hibri, “Is Western Patriarchal Feminism Good for Third World / Minority
Women?” in Is Multiculturalism Bad for Women?, eds. Joshua Cohen et al. (Princeton
Univ. Press, 1999), pp. 41-46.
13. War and Intervention
Monday, October 31
Case: Intervening in Iraq
“Why Attack Iraq?” in in Ethics and Politics: Cases and Comments 4th Edition, ed. Amy
Gutmann and Dennis Thompson (Belmont, CA: Thomson Wadsworth, 2006): 45-58.
David Luban, “Preventive War,” Philosophy & Public Affairs 32:3 (2004), pp. 207-48.
14. Torture in a Democracy
Wednesday, November 2
Case: U.S. Interrogation of Prisoners
“Interrogating Detainees” in Ethics and Politics: Cases and Comments 4th Edition, ed.
Amy Gutmann and Dennis Thompson (Belmont, CA: Thomson Wadsworth, 2006): 6069.
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Alan Dershowitz. “Should the Ticking Time Bomb Terrorist Be Tortured? A Case Study
in How a Democracy Should Make Tragic Choices” in Why Terrorism Works (New
Haven: Yale University Press, 2002): 131-164.
Optional:
Mark Bowden. “The Dark Art of Interrogation” in Atlantic Monthly (October 2003), 3175.
15. Global Justice and Famine Relief
Monday, November 7
Case: Famine Relief
Peter Singer, “Famine, Affluence, and Morality,” Philosophy & Public Affairs 1:3
(1972), pp. 229-243.
Amartya Sen, “Freedom and the Foundations of Justice,” in Development as Freedom
(1999), pp. 54-86, 303-314.
16. Global Justice and Economic Inequality
Wednesday, November 9
Case: Agricultural Protections
“The Great Catfish War,” New York Times (July 22, 2003), pp. A18.
Thomas Nagel. “The Problem of Global Justice” in Philosophy and Public Affairs, Vol.
33, No. 2 (2005): 113-47.
Oxfam, Executive Summary, Rigged Rules and Double Standards: Trade, Globalisation,
and the Fight Against Poverty (2002), pp. 1-19.
PART III. POLITICAL AUTHORITY AND PUBLIC ROLES
17. Ethics and Adversaries
Monday, November 14
Case: Political Deception
“Miller and Furloughs” [rev. 9/91] (1 page).
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Arthur Isak Applbaum, “Rules of the Game and Fair Play,” in Ethics for Adversaries
(1999), pp. 113-135. [BOOK]
James Madison, “Federalist No. 10” and “Federalist No. 51” (1787-88), in The Founders’
Constitution Vol. 1, eds. Philip B. Kurland and Ralph Lerner (1987), pp. 128-131, 330331.
3rd Written Assignment Due by Today
18. A Division of Moral Labor?
Wednesday, November 16
Case: Watergate
Mark H. Moore and Malcolm K. Sparrow, “Saturday Night Massacre,” in Ethics in
Government: The Moral Challenge of Public Leadership (1990), pp. 136-144.
“Marbury v. Madison,” in American Government, ed. James Q. Wilson (1989), pp. 392.
Sir Michael Quinlan, “Controversy: Ethics in the Public Service,” Governance 6:4
(1993), pp. 538-544.
Arthur Isak Applbaum, “The Remains of the Role,” in Ethics for Adversaries (1999), pp.
61-75. [BOOK]
19. Obligation to Obey the Law
Monday, November 21
Case: Marijuana
Plato, “Crito,” in Civil Disobedience in Focus, ed. Hugo Adam Bedau (1991), pp. 13-27.
M.B.E. Smith, “Is There a Prima Facie Obligation to Obey the Law?” Yale Law Journal
82 (1973), pp. 950-976.
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 23– NO CLASS
20. What is Legitimate Law?
Monday, November 28
Case: South African Judges Under Apartheid
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Raymond Wacks, “Judges and Injustice,” South African Law Journal v. 101 (1984), pp.
266-285.
John Dugard, “Should Judges Resign? A Reply to Professor Wacks,” South African Law
Journal v. 101 (1984), pp. 286-294.
21. Civil Disobedience and Protest
Wednesday, November 30
Cases: Protest Activity
Martin Luther King, Jr., “A Letter from the Birmingham Jail,” in Why We Can’t Wait
(1963), pp. 77-100.
Ronald Dworkin, “Civil Disobedience and Nuclear Protest,” A Matter of Principle
(1985), pp. 104-116.
22. Official Disobedience
Monday, December 5
David Rudenstine, “Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers,” in Ethics and Politics:
Cases and Comments [3rd edition], eds. Amy Gutmann and Dennis F. Thompson (1997),
pp. 161-171.
“Agent Rowley Blows the Whistle” in Ethics and Politics: Cases and Comments [4th
edition], eds. Amy Gutmann and Dennis F. Thompson (2006), pp. 226-234.
“The Interview” in Time Magazine (December 20, 2002—January 6, 2003): pp. 58-60.
Daniel Ellsberg “Are Secrecy Oaths a License to Lie?” in Harvard International Review
Vol. 26, No. 2 (Summer 2004).
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23. Political Legitimacy and Discretion
Wednesday, December 7
Mark H. Moore and Malcolm K. Sparrow, “David Goldman and California Legal
Services,” in Ethics in Government: The Moral Challenge of Public Leadership (1990),
pp. 57-63.
Arthur Isak Applbaum, “Democratic Legitimacy and Official Discretion,” in Ethics for
Adversaries (1999), pp. 207-239. [BOOK]
4th Written Assignment Due by Today
24. Taking Responsibility
Monday, December 12
Case: The Iraqi Kurds, 1988
Samantha Power, “Iraq: Human Rights and Chemical Weapons Aside,” in A Problem
from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide (2002), pp. 171-245, 549-559.
Dennis F. Thompson, “The Moral Responsibility of Many Hands,” in Political Ethics and
Public Office (1987), pp. 40-65. [BOOK]
Recommended:
Noam Chomsky, “Humanitarian Intervention,” Boston Review 18:6 (December
1993/January 1994).
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