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Politics of Responsibility and Responsibility of Politics
Hadsell, Heidi
Hadsell, Heidi
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Ch31_Hadsell.pdf
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Abstract
"The evident influence of moral values on political decision making, made moral values the big winners in the 2004 American presidential election. Based both on the different styles of the two campaigns, and on the election polls the day of the election, in which many voters indicated that they had voted for George Bush because of his ‘moral values’, values have rapidly become a dominant political theme. Many political pundits are convinced that George Bush won the election at least in part because he openly declared his own religious beliefs and the moral values he connected to them, while Kerry was more hesitant to do so, and when he did, he did so with more subtlety and nuance. Conservative Christians across the country are ready to cash in on the political influence of conservative Christian values, and thus on the power of conservative Christian leaders, and to translate them into political power to help shape public policy. So prevalent is the theme of moral values in this post election analysis, it tends to eclipse the fact that whether they be self-interested or altruistic, foolish or wise, straight forward or hidden, values have always been at the heart of the political process [...]. There is in fact, a struggle about the meaning of Christianity going on inside Christianity. It is a struggle which often finds political liberals and Christian liberals on one side and political conservatives and Christian conservatives on the other. It is a dynamic that can be seen not simply in public life, but inside many Christian denominations, in the United States and around the world. [...]A lot can be and had been said about this struggle. Both sides view themselves as authentic carriers and interpreters of the core of Christianity, and both can point to scripture and tradition to legitimate their moral positions. My purpose here in not to explore this question. Rather I intend to explore another division within Christianity, and indeed within many religions, which has already been, and promises to continue to be at least as decisive and important in the formation of American public policy and foreign policy as that between conservative and liberal Christians. This is a division that was also in evidence in this presidential campaign, and which also divided votes. To put it in the words of the 19th century sociologist Max Weber, this is the division between an ethics of conviction (Gesinnungsethik) and an ethics of responsibility (Verantwortungsethik). [...].", pp. 275-276
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Book chapter
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2007
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9782825415160
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With permission of the license/copyright holder