MORAL AND CIVIC CHAPTER 1

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Chapter One: Understanding Civics and Ethics

Defining Civics, Ethics, Morality

Civic Education
• human being have to respect certain fundamental principles
and values to live together
• Johan Stuart Mill: progressive and peaceful setting subsists
in a given society as far as that society develops the qualities
of its members and generates good citizens
• Aristotle: citizens of a State should always be educated to
suit the constitution of a State
• different terms used to describe the educational experiences
that deal with the task of developing democratic minded
citizens
➢ Right Education - in South Africa
➢ Citizenship Education - in USA and Germany
➢ Citizenship and Character Education - in Singapore
➢ Civics and Ethical Education - in Ethiopia
• most cited definition of civic education
✓ an education that studies about the rights and
responsibilities of citizens of a politically organized group
of people
✓ the knowledge, means, and activities designed to
encourage students to participate actively in democratic
 life, accepting and exercising their rights and
responsibilities.
• maximal and a minimal civic education
1) minimal concept of civic education
✓ content-led
✓ teacher-based
✓ whole-class teaching
✓ examination-based assessment
2) maximal concept of civic education
✓ comprised of knowledge, values and skills
✓ prepare students for active, responsible participation
✓ extends learning beyond the curriculum and
classroom
✓ highly dependent on interactive teaching, which
requires discussion, debate
Definition and Nature of Ethics and Morality
• ethics is used interchangeably with morals precise usage
would apply
▪ term‘s morals and moral - to the conduct itself
▪ terms ethics and ethical - refer to the study of moral
conduct
• morality is related to praxis, but ethics is related to theory

➢ Ethics:
▪ branch of philosophy
▪ explores the meaning and the ranking of different
ethical values: honesty, autonomy
▪ establish the standards, norms, or codes to be
followed by human beings
▪ set of normative rules of conduct

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 ▪ may share common ground with: law, religious
belief, popular opinion, professional codes BUT
broader than all of these and offers a set of tools
and values against which their appropriateness can
be evaluated
▪ Ethical questions are not concerned with what one
would do (an essentially psychological concern) but
what one ought to do
▪ specific set of principles, values and guidelines for a
particular group or organization
▪ usually associated with a certain conduct within a
profession
▪ critical examination and evaluation of what is good,
evil, right and wrong in human conduct
▪ Judgments about such decisions are generally
expressed with words like
✓ right and wrong
✓ should and ought
✓ obligation and duty
▪ ethics as divided into two fields; normative ethics
and non-normative ethics

➢ morality:
o dictionary definition: Latin “moralitas” - manner,
character, proper behavior
o the degree to which an action conforms to a
standard or norm of human conduct
o code of conduct one follows accepted in a society,
or within a subgroup of society
o more general term: character of individuals and
community

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 o it becomes ambiguous when defined by different
ethnic groups, especially in the multicultural society
o Morality is, at the very least, the effort to guide one‘s
conduct by reason to do what there are the best
reasons for doing while giving equal weight to the
interest of each individual who will be affected by
one‘s conduct
Ethics and Law
➢ Laws
▪ norms, formally approved by state, power or national
or international political bodies
▪ to promote well-being, resolve conflicts of interest,
and promote social harmony
▪ reasons why ethics is not law:
1) some actions that are illegal may not be
unethical.
✓ E.g ethical obligation to break the
speed limit in order to transport
someone to a hospital
2) some actions that are unethical may not be
illegal
✓ E.g lying is unethical but lying is only
illegal under certain conditions
3) laws can be unethical or immoral
✓ E.g United States had laws permitting
slavery in the 1800s
4) we use the coercive power of government
to enforce laws like imprisoned, BUT not
for who violate ethical or moral standards

Importance/Goal of Moral and Civic Education

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 • make individuals responsible and efficient member of their
community
• teaches the values and sense of commitment that define an
active and principled citizen
• producing self-confident citizens who decides on issues
based on reason
• creating a generation who has the capability to shoulder
family and national responsibility
• Generally, the necessity of delivering the course emanates
from:

1) The need to instill citizens about their rights and duties

✓ rights and duties co-exist
✓ what the ideal society needs and wants to be cannot be
secured by coercion, but only through its members
(citizens) who have a balanced understanding of rights
and duties
✓ four issues to look into the interplay between rights and
duties:
I. one's right implies the other's duty
II. one's right implies one's duty to recognize similar
rights of others
▪ every exercise of right is subject to
restrictions. E.g one has the freedom of
speech and expression, but in no way
affects the rights of others.
III. one should exercise his rights for the promotion
of social good
IV. the State being a nucleus organ needs to take
care of the social and legal interests of all its
individuals.

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 ▪ State has the obligation to discharge duties
towards its citizens
▪ As the State guarantees and protects the
rights of everybody, one has a duty to
support the State in its legal endeavors
▪ there must be a balance between citizenship
rights and obligations

2) The Need for Participant Political Culture

✓ Generally, political culture defines the roles which an
individual may play in the political process
✓ three political cultures:
I. parochial cultures
o citizens have low cognitive, affective, and
evaluative orientation regarding the political
systems
o role of citizens in the political sphere of their
countries is insignificant
II. subject cultures
o high cognitive, affective, and evaluative
orientation towards the political system and
policy output
o BUT orientations towards input objects (like
political parties) and the self as active
participants are minimal
o relatively detached, passive relationship on the
part of the citizen
o most compatible with centralized, authoritarian
political structures
III. participant cultures

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 o high cognitive, affective, and evaluative
orientation to the political system, the input
objects, the policy outputs, and
o recognize the self as an active participant in the
polity
o compatible with democratic political structures
✓ qualities and attitudes of citizens determine the health
and stability of a country‘s democracy
✓ challenges the democracy and democratization process
of countries including Ethiopia
▪ many citizens lack the competences and knowledge
to deal with the tensions between individually and
socially centered norms and obligations
▪ small parts of the population support the norm that a
citizen should be politically active
▪ most citizens still rely on voting only
✓ people in a democratic country are supposed to have
▪ in-depth understanding on democratic behavior and
able to behave democratically
▪ ability to tolerate and work together with others who
are different from themselves
▪ desire to participate in the political process in order
to promote the public good and hold political
authorities accountable

3) The Need for Relevant Knowledge, Skills and Positive

Attitudes
✓ Relevant knowledge is a type of knowledge which is
useful in dealing with a particular problem at a period of
time
✓ knowledge would remain inert unless:

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 ▪ it is functional or put into practice
▪ the person equipped with right attitudes and
requisite skills
✓ skillful manpower is a pre-requisite for every nation that
wishes to develop but a skillful manpower without
positive attitudes to work is likely to result in counter
production like; corruption, bribery
✓ civics and ethics can be a useful cure for the “social ills”
often associated with young people: that is, tendencies
for anti-social behavior and political apathy among young
people, or, what describe “youth deficit”
4) The issue of fostering intercultural societies
✓ subject helps overcome discrimination and to nurture
genuine, inclusive dialogue among cultural groups.
✓ tolerating or celebrating each other
✓ nurturing dynamic exchanges based on interaction,
openness and effective solidarity.
• The issue of inclusiveness
✓ Civics and ethics as a subject nurture new and inclusive
relations and practices in both public and private spaces
that recognize gender differences while ensuring
inclusiveness and equity
5) The issue of peace-building
✓ it can make a valuable contribution to create the
subjective conditions for more peaceful situations
✓ includes the development of competencies for
peacemaking, conflict resolution, healing, reconciliation
and reconstruction
✓ understanding of nonviolent civil disobedience
philosophies, strategies and skills

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 • Moral and Civics Education is based on and seeks to
promote in students core moral, ethical, democratic, and
educational values, such as:
➢ Respect for life
➢ Respect for reasoning
➢ Fairness
➢ Concern for the welfare of others
➢ Respect for diversity
➢ Peaceful resolution of conflict
• citizens need to have a combination of knowledge, skills,
attitudes, and values at their disposal enabling them to
become an active citizen
• In sum the goals of teaching civics and ethics at any level of
educational institutions is to produce competent, high moral
standard society and responsible citizens

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MORAL AND CIVIC CHAPTER 2

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Chapter Two: Approaches to Ethics

Introduction
• there are only three basic kinds of prescriptive moral
theories: teleological theories, deontological theories &
virtue-based theories

2.3. Normative Ethics

• Contain theory of obligation, theory of moral value, theory of
nonmoral value
• normative theory of obligation goal is guide us in the making
of decisions and judgments about actions in particular
situations
• Offers theories or accounts of the best way to live by
evaluate actions in a systematic way
• Includes ethical theories or approaches such as:
✓ Utilitarianism
✓ Deontology
✓ virtue ethics
✓ principlism
✓ narrative ethics
✓ feminist ethics
2.3.1. Teleological Ethics (Consequentialist)
• referred as ―the end justifies the means
 • stress that the consequences of an action determines the
morality or immorality of a given action
• action is judged as right or wrong, moral or immoral
depending on what happens because of it
➢ teleological theory
▪ the basic or ultimate criterion or standard of what is
morally right, wrong, obligatory, etc., is the non-moral
value that is brought into being
▪ an act is right if and only if it or the rule under which it
falls produces, will probably produce, or is intended to
produce at least as great a balance of good over evil
( comparative amount of good produced )
▪ the moral quality or value of actions, persons, or traits
of character, is dependent on the comparative
nonmoral value of what they bring about or try to
bring about
▪ the morally good dependent on the nonmorally good
▪ In order to know whether something is right, ought to
be done, or is morally good, one must first know what
is good in the nonmoral sense and whether the thing
in question promotes or is intended to promote what
is good in this sense.
▪ Teleologists have often been:
❖ Hedonists - identifying the good with pleasure
and evil with pain, and concluding that the right
course or rule of action is that which produces at
least as great a balance of pleasure over pain
as any alternative would
▪ there is one and only one basic or ultimate right-
making characteristic, namely, the comparative value

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 (nonmoral) of what is, probably will be, or is intended
to be brought into being
▪ Teleologists differ on the question of whose good it is
that one ought to try to promote:
1. Ethical egoism
✓ one is always to do what will promote his
own greatest good
✓ an act or rule of action is right if and only if it
promotes at least as great a balance of good
over evil for him
✓ This view was held by Epicurus, Hobbes,
and Nietzsche
2. Ethical universalism/ utilitarianism
✓ the ultimate end is the greatest general good
✓ an act or rule of action is right if and only if it
is, or probably is, conducive to at least as
great a balance of good over evil in the
universe as a whole as any alternative
would be
❖ utilitarians Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill
are hedonists, but some utilitarians are not
hedonists, for example, G. E. Moore and
Hastings Rashdall, and so have been called
"Ideal" utilitarians
❖ It would also be possible, of course, to adopt
teleological theories intermediate between
ethical egoism and utilitarianism
❖ pure ethical altruist might even contend that the
right act or rule is the one that most promotes
the good of other people
➢ Deontological theories

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 ▪ deny what teleological theories affirm
▪ principle of maximizing the balance of good over evil,
no matter for whom, is either not a moral criterion or
standard at all, or, at least, it is not the only basic or
ultimate one
▪ assert that there are other considerations that may
make an action or rule right or obligatory besides the
goodness or badness of its consequences -- certain
features of the act itself other than the value it brings
into existence
▪ example: the fact that it keeps a promise, is just, or is
commanded by God or by the state

2.3.2. Egoism: Ethical and psychological Egoism

1) Ethical Egoism
• focus on the consequences of actions because believe
that those consequences justify actions
• Although theory is indeed Consequentialist, it does not
qualify as utilitarian, because it doesn’t have the
common good as its ultimate end
• It is a normative theory about how we ought to behave
that advocates egoism as a moral rule
➢ The theory implies that we ought to be
✓ Selfish
✓ self-interested
➢ Example, case: Good Samaritan stopped to help a man
whose car had broken down on the freeway. The man
shot and killed the Samaritan, stole his car.

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 • Although most people would admire the Good
Samaritan for what he did the ethical egoist would
say that, the Samaritan did the wrong thing
➢ For ethical egoism there is only one rule. Look after
yourself
➢ Ethical egoist insisted that if you don’t take advantage
of a situation, you are foolish
➢ It twisted version of the Golden Rule (Do un to others
as you would have them do unto you).
✓ It is rewriting of the Golden Rule, because,
obviously, it is not always the case that you will get
the same treatment from other that you give to
them
✓ The Golden Rule usually emphasizes others, but
for the ethical egoist it emphasizes the self
➢ argument for ethical egoism follows immediately from
the theory of psychological egoism: If I am
psychologically programmed to act only in my own best
interest, then I can never be obligated to perform
altruistic
1. We all always seek to maximize our own self-
interest (definition of psychological egoism)
2. If one cannot do an act, one has no obligation to
do that act
3. Altruistic acts involve putting other people’s
interests ahead of our own (definition of altruism)
4. But, altruism contradicts psychological egoism
and so is impossible (by premises 1 and 3)
5. Therefore, altruistic acts are never morally
obligatory (by premises 2 and 4)

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 ➢ suggests that other people’s interests are of no
importance
✓ from the moral point of view, only one’s own
welfare counts, and others’ does not

Notice

• Ethical egoism does not forbid one to help others,

or require one to harm others/ deliberately neglect
their interests
o If you might advance your own interests by
helping others, then by all means help others
but only if you are the main beneficiary
• Ethical egoism does not say that one ought always
to do what is most pleasurable, or enjoyable
o It suggests that one should do what will be of
long term benefit to one self like exercising,
eating healthy food
o It acknowledges that one’s own self–interest
may occasionally require pain or sacrifice

2) Psychological Egoism
• The main argument that has been used as a basis for
ethical egoism is a psychological one, an argument
from human nature.
• ethical egoism has generally presupposed what is
called psychological egoism -- that each of us is always
seeking his own greatest good - whether this is
conceived of as pleasure, happiness, knowledge,
power, self-realization, or a mixed life

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 ➢ one always seeks one's own advantage or welfare, or
always does what he thinks will give him the greatest
balance of good over evil
➢ "self-love" is the only basic "principle" in human nature
➢ "ego-satisfaction" is the final aim of all activity or that
"the pleasure principle" is the basic "drive" in every
individual
❖ we must recognize this fact in our moral theory and
infer that our basic ethical principle must be that of
self-love
Notice
✓ one cannot logically infer an ethical conclusion
from a psychological premise
✓ if human nature is as described, it is simply
unrealistic and even unreasonable to propose that
we ought basically to do anything but what is for
our own greatest good
✓ psychological argument for ethical egoism is at
least reasonable, even if it is not logically
compelling

2.3.3. Utilitarianism: Producing the best consequences

• That action is best, which procures the greatest happiness
for the greatest numbers
• Unlike ethical egoism, utilitarianism is a universal teleological
system.
• It calls for the maximization of goodness in society—that is,
the greatest goodness for the greatest number—and not
merely the good of the agent

Note this points:

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 ✓ A more promising strategy for solving dilemmas is that of
definite moral rules.
✓ Principles are important in life
• Example: if you act on the principle of keeping
promises, then you adhered to a type of moral
theory called deontology
✓ In consequentialist ethics the center of value is the outcome
or consequences of the act
• Example: example, a Teleologists would judge
whether lying was morally right or wrong by the
consequences it produced
Utilitarianism Types

Classic Utilitarianism
o In our normal lives we use utilitarian reasoning all the time
o seeds of utilitarianism were sewn by the ancient Greek
philosopher Epicurus:
✓ he stated that “pleasure is the goal that nature has ordained
for us; it is also the standard by which we judge everything
good.”
✓ his theory focused largely on the individual’s personal
experience of pleasure and pain
✓ he advocated a version of ethical egoism
o Nevertheless, Epicurus inspired a series of eighteenth-
century philosophers who emphasized the notion of general
happiness—that is, the pleasing consequences of actions
that impact others and not just the individual
o classical expressions of utilitarianism, though, appear in the
writings of two English philosophers and social reformers:
➢ Jeremy Bentham
➢ John Stuart Mill

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Jeremy Bentham: Quantity over Quality
• main features of utilitarianism, both of which Bentham
articulated:
▪ The consequentialist principle (or its teleological aspect):
✓ rightness or wrongness of an act is determined by
the goodness or badness of the results that flow
from it
✓ the end counts
✓ end justifies the means
▪ The utility principle (or its hedonic aspect)
✓ the only thing that is good in itself is some specific
type of state (for example, pleasure, happiness,
welfare)
• Hedonistic utilitarianism
➢ views pleasure as the sole good and pain as the only
evil
➢ act is right if it either brings about more pleasure than
pain or prevents pain
➢ an act is wrong if it either brings about more pain than
pleasure or prevents pleasure from occurring
➢ hedonic calculus:
✓ scheme for measuring pleasure and pain
✓ quantitative score for any pleasure or pain
experience is obtained by summing the seven
aspects of a pleasurable or painful experience,
which are:
• intensity
• duration
• certainty
• nearness
• fruitfulness
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 • purity
• extent
✓ Adding up the amounts of pleasure and pain for
each possible act gives hedons (units of
happiness).
✓ The amount of hedons would enable us to
decide which act to perform
• In Bentham’s utilitarianism,
▪ there is only one principle to apply: Maximize pleasure
and minimize suffering
▪ morality really is about reducing suffering and promoting
benevolence
▪ It is scientific: Simply make quantitative measurements
and apply the principle impartially
John Stuart Mill: Quality over Quantity
• Bentham’s successor, John Stuart Mill, sought to distinguish
happiness from mere sensual pleasure
• His version of the theory is often called eudaimonistic
utilitarianism
✓ from the Greek eudaimonia, meaning “happiness”
o eudaimonistic utilitarianism
▪ defines happiness in terms of
➢ certain types of higher-order pleasures or
satisfactions
➢ minimal suffering
▪ two types of pleasures:
1. lower, or elementary
▪ eating, drinking, sexuality, resting, and
sensuous titillation
▪ the lower pleasures are more intensely
gratifying

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 ▪ lead to pain when overindulged in
2. higher
▪ high culture, scientific knowledge, intellectuality,
and creativity
▪ higher pleasures tend to be more long term,
continuous, and gradual
▪ higher, or more refined, pleasures are superior
to the lower ones: “It is better to be a human
being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied; better to
be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied
o The point is: the quality of the higher
pleasures is better
• what is better pleasure? The formula:
▪ Happiness is not a life of rapture; but moments
made up of
✓ few and transitory pains
✓ many and various pleasures, with a decided
predominance of the active over the passive
✓ foundation of the whole
▪ not to expect more from life than it is
capable of bestowing.
• Mill is clearly pushing the boundaries of the concept of
“pleasure” by emphasizing higher qualities such as
▪ knowledge, intelligence, freedom, friendship,
love, and health
▪ In fact, his litmus test for happiness really has
little to do with actual pleasure and more to do
with a non-hedonic cultivated state of mind
Act- And Rule-Utilitarianism
• two classical types of utilitarianism:
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 ▪ Act-utilitarianism
✓ an act is right if and only if it results in as much
good as any available alternative
✓ act-utilitarians, such as Bentham
✓ practical problem with act-utilitarianism
▪ First: we cannot do the necessary
calculations to determine which act is the
correct one in each case, for often we
must act spontaneously and quickly
▪ Second: it seems to fly in the face of
fundamental intuitions about minimally
correct behavior
▪ Rule-utilitarianism
✓ An act is right if and only if it is required by a
rule that is itself a member of a set of rules
whose acceptance would lead to greater utility
for society than any available alternative
✓ Human beings are rule-following creatures
✓ we don’t have time to decide which action
produce more utility so we need a more
specific rule that passes the test of rational
scrutiny
• Utilitarianism might be construed as offering a three-
step action formula for action:
1. I must project the consequences of each
alternative option open to me (e.g., taking different
kinds of actions or taking no action)

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 2. Calculate how much happiness, or balance of
happiness over unhappiness, is likely to be
produced by anticipated consequences of each
action or none.
3. Select that action which, on balance, will produce
the greatest amount of happiness for the greatest
number of people affected
The Strengths of Utilitarianism
• It has three very positive features
➢ First
▪ it is a single principle, an absolute system with
a potential answer for every situation: Do what
will promote the most utility!
▪ have a simple, action-guiding principle that is
applicable to every occasion
➢ Second
o utilitarianism seems to get to the substance of
morality
o Rather it has a material core: we should
promote human (and possibly animal)
flourishing and reduce suffering
▪ It has two virtues:
✓ First: It gives us a clear decision
procedure in arriving at our answer
about what to do
✓ Second: it appeals to our sense that
morality is made for people and that
morality is not so much about rules as
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 about helping people and alleviating
the suffering in the world

➢ Third
▪ it is particularly well suited to address the
problem of posterity—namely, why we should
preserve scarce natural resources for the
betterment of future generations
▪ utilitarians have one overriding duty: to
maximize general happiness
▪ As long as the quality of life of future people
promises to be positive, we have an obligation
to continue human existence, to produce
human beings, and to take whatever actions
are necessary to ensure that their quality of life
is not only positive but high
Criticism of Utilitarianism
standard objections to utilitarianism

Problems with Formulating Utilitarianism

• The first set of problems occurs in the very formulation
of utilitarianism: “The greatest happiness for the
greatest number.”
• Notice that we have two “greatest” things in this
formula: “happiness” and “number.”
• Whenever we have two variables, we invite problems
of determining which of the variables to rank first when
they seem to conflict
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 • should we worry more about total happiness or about
highest average?
The Comparative Consequences Objection
• it seems to require a superhuman ability to look into
the future and survey a mind-boggling array of
consequences of actions
• we normally do not know the long-term consequences
of our actions
• life is too complex and the consequences go on into
the indefinite future.
The Consistency Objection to Rule-Utilitarianism
• An often-debated question about rule-utilitarianism is
whether, when pushed to its logical limits, it must either
become a deontological system or transform itself into
act-utilitarianism
• it is an inconsistent theory that offers no truly
independent standard for making moral judgment
• Imagine that following the set of general rules of a rule-
utilitarian system yields (x) hedons (positive utility
units) However, We could always find a case where
breaking the general rule would result in additional
hedons without decreasing the sum of the whole
✓ It would seem that we could always improve on
any version of rule-utilitarianism by breaking the
set of rules whenever we judge that by doing so
we could produce even more utility than by
following the set
The No-Rest Objection
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 • According to utilitarianism, one should always do that
act that promises to promote the most utility
• But there is usually an infinite set of possible acts to
choose from
• Following utilitarianism, I should get little or no rest,
and, certainly, I have no right to enjoy life when by
sacrificing I can make others happier. Peter
✓ For example, when I am about to go to the cinema
with a friend, I should ask myself if helping the
homeless in my community wouldn’t promote more
utility
The Publicity Objection
• It is usually thought that moral principles must be
known to all so that all may freely obey the principles
• But utilitarians usually hesitate to recommend that
everyone act as a utilitarian, especially an act-
utilitarian, because it takes a great deal of deliberation
to work out the likely consequences of alternative
courses of action
• Thus, utilitarianism seems to contradict our
requirement of publicity.
The Relativism Objection
• people accuse rule-utilitarianism of being relativistic
because it seems to endorse different rules in different
societies
• But this is not really conventional relativism because
the rule is not made valid by the community’s choosing
it but by the actual situation
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Criticism of the Ends Justifying Immoral Means
• utilitarian ends might justify immoral means
• There are many dastardly things that we can do in the
name of maximizing general happiness: deceit, torture,
slavery, even killing off ethnic minorities
• The general problem can be laid out in this argument:
1. If a moral theory justifies actions that we
universally deem impermissible, then that moral
theory must be rejected
2. Utilitarianism justifies actions that we universally
deem impermissible.
3. Therefore, utilitarianism must be rejected
The Lying Objection
• William D. Ross has argued that utilitarianism is to be
rejected because it leads to the counterintuitive
endorsement of lying when it serves the greater good
• If it turned out that lying really promoted human
welfare, we’d have to accept it. But that’s not likely.
Our happiness is tied up with a need for reliable
information (that is, truth)
The Justice Objection
• Utilitarian suggest that we should reconsider whether
truth telling and personal integrity are values that
should never be compromised
• The situation is intensified, though, when we consider
standards of justice that most of us think should never
be dispensed with

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 ✓ imagine that you are a utilitarian physician who has
five patients under your care. All need different
kind of organ transplant.
▪ Through a utility-calculus, you determine that,
without a doubt, you could do the most good
by using a healthy man organs to save your
five other patients.
✓ This careless views of justice offend us
• The very fact that utilitarians even consider such
actions— that they would misuse the legal system or
the medical system to carry out their schemes—seems
frightening
• Justice is just one more lower-order principle within
utilitarianism.
• Judgment calls like these highlight utilitarianism’s
difficulty in handling issues of justice

Generally
• utilitarianism is a moral theory which takes into account
how the consequences of an act will affect all the
parties involved
• The fundamental principle of utilitarianism is the
principle of utility
✓ morally right action is the one that produces the
best overall consequences with regard to the utility
or welfare of all the affected parties.
✓ Jeremy Bentham’s: right act or policy is the one
that causes ‘the greatest happiness of the greatest
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 number’ – that is, maximize the total utility or
welfare of the majority of all the affected parties
Altruism
• In altruism an action is right if the consequences of that
action are favorable to all except the actor
• psychological altruism:
➢ we have an inherent psychological capacity to
show benevolence to others
➢ Psychological altruism holds that all human
action is necessarily other centered and other
motivated
• Altruists are people who:
✓ act so as to increase other people’s pleasure
✓ They will act for the sake of someone else even if
it decreases their own pleasure and causes
themselves pain
▪ differentiate egoistic and altruistic desires
➢ One’s desire is egoistic if (and only if) it concerns
(what one perceives to be) the benefit of oneself
and not anyone else
➢ one’s desire is altruistic if (and only if) it concerns
(what one perceives to be) the benefit of at least
someone other than oneself
▪ Altruists reject the theory of psychological egoism and
argue instead that humans are instinctively benevolent.
✓ instinctive benevolence is the feature of our
human nature which is the basis of our altruistic
moral obligations
19
2.3.4. Deontological Ethics (Non- Consequentialist)
• rightness or wrongness of moral action is determined,
at least partly with reference to formal rules of conduct
rather than consequences or result of an action
• It is referred as “the means justifies the end”
• In many respects, deontological moral theory is
diametrically the opposite of utilitarianism
✓ It is a duty based and according to this theory,
the consequences or results of our action have
nothing to do with their rightness or wrongness
• It is coined as “deontics”
• It emphasis on the intentions, motives, moral principles
or performance of duty rather than results
• German philosopher Samuel Pufendorf, classified
dozens of duties under three headings:
1. Concerning our duties towards God
▪ there are two kinds:
I. a theoretical duty to know the existence
and nature of God
II. a practical duty to both inwardly and
outwardly worship God.
2. Concerning our duties towards oneself
▪ There are two sorts:
i. duties of the soul, which involve
developing one's skills and talents
ii. duties of the body, which involve not
harming our bodies
3. Concerning our duties towards others
20
 a. Absolute duties
▪ absolute duties, which are universally
binding on people
▪ three sort
➢ avoid wronging others
➢ treat people as equals
➢ promote the good of others
b. Conditional duties
▪ involve various types of agreements
▪ the principal one of which is the duty is
to keep one's promises
The Divine Command Theory
• ethical principles:
✓ are simply the commands of God
✓ derive their validity from God’s commanding them
• Without God, there would be no universally valid
morality
• analyze the DCT into three separate theses:
1. Morality originates with God
2. Moral rightness simply means “willed by God,” and
moral wrongness means “being against the will of
God.”
3. Because morality essentially is based on divine
will, not on independently existing reasons for
action, no further reasons for action are necessary
• four propositions:
1. Act A is wrong if and only if it is contrary to the
command of God
21
 2. Act A is right (required) if and only if it is
commanded by God
3. Act A is morally permissible if and only if it is
permitted by the command of God
4. If there is no God, then nothing is ethically wrong,
required, or permitted
• an act is right in virtue of being permitted by the will of
God, and an act is wrong in virtue of being against the
will of God
Rights Theory
• Most generally, a "right" is a justified claim against
another person's behavior
• Correlativity of rights and duties: Rights and duties are
related in such a way that the rights of one person
imply the duties of another person.
• John Locke:
✓ argued that the laws of nature mandate that we
should not harm anyone's life, health, liberty or
possessions
• Thomas Jefferson:
✓ United States Declaration of Independence
authored by Thomas Jefferson recognizes three
foundational rights
➢ Life
➢ Liberty
➢ pursuit of happiness
✓ Jefferson and others rights theorists maintained
that we deduce other more specific rights from
22
 these, including the rights of property, movement,
speech, and religious expression
• four features traditionally associated with moral rights
❖Rights are
1. Natural - not invented or created by governments
2. Universal - do not change from country to country.
3. Equal - rights are the same for all people,
irrespective of gender, race, or handicap.
4. Inalienable - one cannot hand over his/her rights to
another person

Kant’s Categorical Imperative

Recall deontology
✓ Not consequences which determine the rightness or
wrongness of an act, but, rather, the intention of the person
who carries out the act
✓ The emphasis is on the correctness of the action,
regardless of the possible benefits or harm it might produce
✓ There are some moral obligations which are absolutely
binding, no matter what consequences are produced
The Categorical Imperative
• Kant’s duty-based theory is emphasizes a single principle of
duty
• There is a more foundational principle of duty that
encompasses our particular duties. It is a single, self-
evident principle of reason that he calls the “categorical
imperative”
✓ different from hypothetical imperatives that hinge on
some personal desire that we have
✓ which means best achieve our ends
23
 o For example, “If you want to get a good job, then
you ought to go to college.”
✓ categorical imperative simply mandates an action,
irrespective of one’s personal desires, such as “You
ought to do X.”
• Kant emphasis the idea of good intension
o nothing was good in itself except a “good will”
o Intelligence, judgment and all other facets of the human
personality are perhaps good and desirable, but only if
the will that makes use of them is good
o Will - the uniquely human capacity to act according to
the concepts behind laws, that is, principles presumably
operating in nature
• Kant a will could be good without qualification only if it always
had in view one principle:
❖ whether the maxim of its action could become a
universal law
• there was just one command or imperative that was
categorical, that is, one that presented an action as
necessary of itself, without regard to any other end
• Kant’s categorical imperative states that we should act in
such a way that the maxim or general rule governing our
action could be a universal law
✓ Kant thought that when a moral action is being
considered, one should ask the following questions;
❖ what would happen if everyone in the world did this, all
the time? And would that be the kind of world I’d like to
live in?
• Kant gives at least three versions or formulations of the
categorical imperative

24
 ✓ His categorical imperative is a based on the idea that
there are certain objective ethical rules in the world
✓ Kant’s version is possibly the most well-known, and
relies heavily on his idea that all people are
fundamentally capable of reasoning in the same manner
and on the same level
✓ Kantianism focuses more on intent and action in itself,
as opposed to the consequentialist focus of utilitarianism
• person cannot decide whether conduct is "right," or moral,
through empirical means. Such judgments must be reached
a priori, using pure practical reason
✓ Moral questions are determined independent of
reference to the particular subject posing them
✓ Kant's theory is hinged by his beliefs on autonomy and
his formulation of categorical imperatives. He believed
that, unless a person freely and willingly makes a choice,
their action has no meaning (and certainly no moral
value
✓ Autonomy - one’s own beliefs, independence, and
government: acting without regard for anyone else
✓ Heteronomy - acting under the influence of someone
else
• Kant believed that each individual is rational and capable of
making free choices; thereby relies on autonomous thinking
• Kant thought that every man, if using reason when looking
at moral dilemmas, would agree with what he called the
Categorical Imperative
• moral proposition that is true must be one that is not tied to
any particular conditions, including the identity of the
person making the moral deliberation/ The Intent behind the
action matter

25
formulation of the categorical imperative:
1. The Principle of Universality
• "Act only according to that maxim whereby you can at the
same time will that it should become a universal law
without contradiction"
• Kant divides the duties imposed by this formulation into two
subsets
➢ Perfect duties
✓ blameworthy if not met and are the basic requirements
for a human being
✓ not to act by maxims that result in logical
contradictions when we attempt to universalize
them.
✓ Example: moral proposition: "It is permissible to steal"
would result in a contradiction upon universalization
✓ Example of perfect duty is the avoidance of suicide
➢ Imperfect duties
✓ do not achieve blame, rather they receive praise if
completed
✓ they are circumstantial duties
✓ Example: cultivating talent
✓ is not as strong as a perfect duty, but it is still morally
binding
✓ imperfect duties are those duties that are never truly
completed
o perfecting the ability to write and produce works
2. The Principle of Humanity as an End, Never as Merely a
Means
• not use humanity of ourselves or others as a means to an
end

26
 • People, as rational beings, are ends in themselves and
should never be used merely as means to other ends
• We may use physical things as means, but when we use
people simply as means, as in slavery, prostitution, or
commercial exploitation, we degrade them and violate
their innermost beings as people
• Example Suicide would be wrong since one would be
treating his/her life as a means to the alleviation of their
misery
• Person has perfect duty not to use the humanity of
themselves or others merely as a means to some other
end
3. The Principle of Autonomy
• we should consider ourselves to be members in the
universal realm of ends
• every rational being must so act as if he were through his
maxim always a legislating member in the universal
kingdom of end
• Kant presents the notion of the hypothetical Kingdom of
Ends , We should consider our actions to be of
consequence to everyone else in that our actions affect not
only ourselves but that of others
main problem with the categorical imperative - its rigidity
• Example: It suggest to tell a truth to a potential attacker
where a person is found just knowing he/she will harm him
and having a relation with the person in attack
• Morality is simply too complex, too full of exceptions for
these theories to ever fully work

Ross’s Prima Facie Duties or Moral Guidelines

27
 • The term prima facie means “at a first sight” or “on
the surface”
✓ duties that dictate what we should do when other
moral factors are not considered
Example:
▪ An example of a prima facie duty is the duty to
keep promises Unless stronger moral
considerations override, one ought to keep a
promise made
• prima facie duties are duties that generally obligate us;
that is, they ordinarily impose a moral obligation
but may not in a particular case because of
circumstances
✓ actual duty - action that one ought to perform
after considering and weighing all the prima
facie duties involved
✓ When faced with a situation that presents
conflicting prima facie duties, Ross tells us, the
more obligatory, our actual duty. The actual duty
has the greatest amount of prima facie
rightness over wrongness
Example:
▪ Suppose you observe an elderly neighbor collapse
with what might be a heart attack. You are a block
away from the nearest phone from which you could
call for help. A child’s bike is close at hand and no one
but you and the collapsed elderly person is around.
One or more duties seem to say "take the bike and go

28
 call for help," while others seems to say "taking the
bike is wrong." On the "don't take" side are justice and
non-injury (it seems unjust to the owner of the bike
and an injury to him or her). On the "take" side lies
harm-prevention. It is widely known that people die
from heart attacks that are not treated quickly. (Note
that this seems to be a case of harm-prevention rather
than beneficence in the strict sense.) The solution
might be to recognize that in this circumstance, harm-
prevention takes priority over what on the surface
looks like injustice and injury. So the actual duty is
probably to take the bike and get help. Besides, it
should not be difficult to make up the temporary bike
loss to its owner, that is, there might be an actual
duty of reparation
• W.D. Ross, Ross’s list the following categories of prima facie
duties
1. Duties of Fidelity - duty to keep promises and the
obligation not to lie
2. Duties of Reparation - duty to make up for the injuries
one has done to others. the duty to compensate others
when we harm them
3. Duties of Gratitude - duty to thank those who help us.
Example, I am duty bound to do all I can help this
individual, who in the past had acted so selflessly toward
me.
4. Duties of Justice - one act in such a way that one
distributes benefits and burdens fairly. Ross himself
emphasizes the negative aspect of this duty. the duty of

29
 justice includes the duty, insofar as possible, to prevent an
unjust distribution of benefits or burdens
5. Duties of Beneficence - duty to improve the conditions
of others
6. Duties of Self-improvement - to act so as to promote
one’s own good
7. Duties of Non-maleficence - duty of non-injury. duty not
to harm others physically or psychologically
✓ he does insist that we acknowledge and willingly
accept the seven categories without argument. His
appeal for their acceptance does not rely primarily on
reason and argument but on intuition
• Note - The term "duty" in "prima facie duty" is slightly
misleading. The prima facie duties are understood as
guidelines, not rules without exception. If an action does
not correspond to a specific guideline, one is not necessarily
violating a rule that one ought to follow. However, not
following the rule one ought to follow in a particular case is
failing to do one's (actual) duty

30
Moral and Civics Chapter 3

More Quick Notes, Telegram: @campus_handout / https://t.me/campus_handout

Chapter Three: Ethical Decision Making and Moral Judgments

3.1 Chapter Introduction
function of morality
▪ How to make a right or correct decision and by what standard
that one decision is right and another wrong is always a puzzle
✓ functions of morality is to give guidance in dealing with
these puzzles
▪ Another function of morality is to provide principles and rules
that are acceptable to everyone and encourage people to live
together peacefully and cooperatively
3.2. Chapter Objectives
3.3. How Can We Make Ethical Decisions and Actions?
▪ In life, we may get difficulties to always do the right thing.
What we often considered as right and correct might put us in
difficult condition
▪ Individuals could give their own justification to testify that they
are Right or correct
▪ The ethical nature of our action and decision, however, is very
much dependent upon our notion of “Good” and “Bad”, “Right”
and “wrong”
1
 What things are good or bad
➢ instrumental good
✓ things which we consider good or desirable for their result
for what they lead to
✓ they are instruments towards the attainment of the other
things which are considered good not simply as
instruments
➢ intrinsic good
✓ things which we consider good not because of what they
lead to but because of what they are in themselves
✓ worth having or perusing because of their own intrinsic
nature
➢ instrumentally bad and intrinsically bad
✓ Some things can fulfill both qualities/ unethical or bad or
evil practices
✓ Female Genital Mutilation, early marriage, poverty,
corruption
Task of ethics
o analyze and critically consider the values we hold and
the claims we make
o evaluate the adequacy of reasons that we give for our
actions
o whether the reasons offered to support a particular
course of action are based on sound evidence and/or
logical argument
2
 ▪ The tasks of weighing ethical values and evaluating different
ethical arguments are unlike many other kinds of human tasks
✓ Ethical values are usually not as easy to understand as
other kinds of values
o it is easier to test a person’s blood pressure than it is
to determine whether or not they are virtuous
▪ Aim of ethics then, is not, despite popular opinion, to take the
high moral ground and tell people what to do, but, rather, to
offer tools for thinking about difficult problems
▪ As complex as ethical situations may be, however, there is
still an obligation on everyone involved in ethically challenging
situations to resolve any problems that arise in the most
sincere, reasonable, and collaborative way possible
3.3.1. Ethical Principles and Values of Moral Judgments
▪ The branch of philosophical study ethics’ is concerned with
studying and/or building up a coherent set of ‘rules or
principles by which people ought to live
▪ In place of systematically examined ethical frameworks, most
people instead carry around a useful set of day-to-day ‘rules
of thumb’ that influence and govern their behavior
o commonly, these include rules such as ‘it is wrong to
steal’, ‘it is right to help people in need’, and so on
▪ But sometimes the vicissitudes and complexities of life mean
that these simple rules are sometimes put to the test.
Consider the idea that it is wrong to kill

3
 ▪ We need to examine these questions in more detail; and we
need theoretical frameworks that can help us to analyze
complex problems and to find rational, coherent solutions to
those problems
✓ philosophers attempt to find general answers that can be
used by everyone in society
3.3.2. Moral intuitions and Critical Reasoning
▪ The study of ethics involves reasoning about our feelings
• making sense of and rationalising our intuitions about
what is ‘right’ or ‘good’
▪ Our moral sentiments and ethical reasoning about these
sentiments gives us our moral principles.
• The integration of these moral sentiments and principles
is our conscience
• Our moral conscience, then, is based on emotions, but
should also be supported by reason
▪ All societies are characterized by their own ethical ideas
expressed in terms of attitudes and beliefs
✓ Some of those ethics are formalised in the laws and
regulations of a society influence the consciences and the
moral sentiments of those living in a society
✓ Philosophical ethics, however, asks us to take a step
back from these influences and instead to reflect critically
on our sentiments and attitudes

4
3.3.2.1. Rationalisation
▪ Studying ethics involves attempting to find valid reasons for
the moral arguments that we make
▪ an argument is not simply about our beliefs or opinions;
instead, it is about the reasons underlying those beliefs or
opinions
✓ real value of discussing and debating ethical questions is
not to ‘win the argument’ or to ‘score points’ against the
other person
▪ One common fault with many arguments about what is ‘right’
or ‘wrong’ – and – involves what is known as a rationalization
Rationalization
▪ occurs when we use what at first glance seem to be rational
or credible motives to cover up our true (and perhaps
unconscious) motives
▪ Example: landowner seeks to build a plastic recycling plant
• states that this is driven by a desire to create local
employment opportunities
• their true motive is to make a profit
• however, they argue that they want to make a
personal profit and create local jobs, then they may
be giving two true reasons for their motives

3.3.2.2. Types of reasoning

5
 ➢ Reasoning by analogy
✓ explains one thing by comparing it to something
else that is similar, although also different
✓ good analogy, the similarity outweighs the
dissimilarity and is clarifying
✓ Example: animals are like and unlike humans
• Is the similarity sufficiently strong to support the
argument that we should ascribe rights to
nonhuman animals as we do to humans?
➢ Deductive reasoning
✓ applies a principle to a situation
✓ Example: if every person has human rights, and
you are a person, then you have human rights like
every person
➢ Inductive reasoning
✓ providing evidence to support a hypothesis
✓ The greater the evidence for a hypothesis, the
more we may rely on it
✓ Example: moral duty to reduce carbon emissions
3.3.2.3. Ethics and Religious Faith
▪ For many people, morality and religious faith go hand in hand
❖ people view actions as being right or wrong in terms of
whether they are commanded by a god
6
 ▪ Some moral philosophers do not view arguments based on
religious faith as being rationally defensible
o we are able to know what is right or wrong without relying
on any divine commandments, as we can use rational
reflection
▪ faith-based arguments are relevant to moral philosophy for
several reasons
✓ people do not always agree on what is right or wrong It
is not therefore clear that we can determine what
is right and wrong simply through rational
reflection
✓ Many people in the world do look to religion for
moral guidance
o we should not underestimate the ability of ‘the
moral teachings of a religious tradition […] to
persuade the public to embrace a higher moral
standard
▪ moral principles and decisions should be justified by
rational arguments, and thus consideration of religious
arguments should not be excluded from the study of
ethics
3.3.2.4. Testing moral arguments
▪ Critical reasoning is about asking questions whenever anyone
gives us a reason to support an argument

7
 ▪ It is important and useful to develop the ability to test your
own arguments and those of others
Three ways to test a moral argument
➢ Factual accuracy
- we should not derive an ‘ought’ from an ‘is’
- we cannot say that something is wrong or right simply
based on how things are
- the accuracy of the factual content of a discussion is
very important otherwise their moral argument would
lose its force
➢ Consistency
- Arguments need to be consistent
- you have to show that there is a moral difference
between the two. Otherwise, your arguments are
inconsistent
o Example: moral argument that debts owed by poorer
nations to international lenders should be cancelled.
• What about poor people owe money to banks should
also have their debts cancelled?
➢ Good will
- While arguments may be factually correct and
consistent, they also need to ‘exemplify good will’
- This involves resorting to our intuitions and emotions,
which are notoriously difficult to integrate with rigorous
theoretical debate
8
3.3.3. Thinking Ethically: A framework for Moral Decision
Making
▪ first step in analyzing moral issues is Get the facts, but having
the facts is not enough. Facts by themselves only tell us what
is; they do not tell us what ought to be
▪ Although ethics deals with right and wrong, it is not a
discipline that always leads everyone to the same conclusions
✓ Deciding an ethical issue can be equally difficult for
conservatives and liberals
▪ To guide our reflection on such difficult questions,
philosophers, religious teachers and other thinkers have
shaped various approaches to ethical decision-making
- Fairness and Justice
- the common Good
- the Utilitarian (remember this idea is discussed
previously),
- the Rights
- the Virtues
3.3.3.1. Fairness and Justice Approach
▪ its roots in the teachings of the ancient Greek philosopher
Aristotle who said that
“equals should be treated equally and unequal’s unequally”
▪ The basic moral question in this approach is:
✓ How fair is an action?
✓ Does it treat everyone in the same way, or does it show
9
 favoritism and discrimination?
o Favoritism gives benefits to some people without a
justifiable reason for singling them out
o discrimination imposes burdens on people who are
no different from those on whom the burdens are not
imposed
- Both favoritism and discrimination are unjust and
wrong
▪ ethical knowledge is not precise knowledge, like logic and
mathematics, but general knowledge like knowledge of
nutrition and exercise
▪ it is a practical discipline rather than a theoretical one
❖ in order to become "good", one could not simply study
what virtue is; one must actually be virtuous/ practices it
▪ everything was done with some goal in mind and that goal is
'good.'
✓ The ultimate goal called the Highest Good: happiness
✓ finds happiness "by ascertaining the specific function of
man"
o human's function is to do what makes it human, to be
good at what sets it apart from everything else: the
ability to reason or logos
▪ humans belonged to one of four categories:
✓ the virtuous
✓ the continent
10
 ✓ the incontinent
✓ the vicious
▪ this approach focuses on how fairly or unfairly our actions
distribute benefits and burdens among the members of a
group
▪ The principle states:
“Treat people the same unless there are morally relevant
differences between them.”
3.3.3.2. The Common Good Approach
▪ Greek philosophers: life in community is a good in itself and
our actions should contribute to that life
▪ interlocking relationships of society are the basis of ethical
reasoning
✓ respect and compassion for all others especially the
vulnerable are requirements of such reasoning
▪ approach also calls attention to the common conditions that
are important to the welfare of everyone
- system of laws
- effective police and fire departments
- health care, a public educational system
- peace among nations
- an unpolluted environment
▪ ethicist John Rawls defined the common good as
✓ "certain general conditions that are equally to everyone's
advantage
11
 ▪ While respecting and valuing the freedom of individuals to
pursue their own goals, the common good approach
challenges us also to recognize and further those goals we
share in common
▪ The principle of the common good approach states;
“What is ethical is what advances the common good”
3.3.3.3. The Rights Approach
▪ roots in the philosophy of the 18th century thinker Immanuel
Kant and others like him who focused on the individual’s right
to choose for her or himself
▪ what makes human beings different from mere things is that
people have dignity based on their ability to choose freely
what they will do with their lives, and they have a fundamental
moral right to have these choices respected
❖ People are not objects to be manipulated; it is a violation
of human dignity to use people in ways they do not freely
choose
▪ related rights exist besides this basic one
➢ The Right to the Truth
- We have a right to be told the truth and to be informed
about matters that significantly affect choices
➢ The Right of Privacy
- right to do, believe, and say whatever we choose in our
personal lives so long as we do not violate the rights of
others

12
 ➢ The Right not to be injured
- the right not to be harmed or injured unless we freely
and knowingly do something to deserve punishment, or
we freely and knowingly choose to risk such injuries
➢ The Right to what is agreed
- the right to what has been promised those with whom
we have freely entered into a contract or agreement
▪ In deciding whether an action is moral or immoral using this
approach, we must ask
❖ does the action respect the moral rights of everyone?
3.4. To Whom or What Does Morality Apply?
3.4.1. Religious Morality
▪ refers to a human being in relationship to a supernatural being
or beings
▪ In the Jewish and Christian traditions, for example, the first
three of the Ten Commandments (See the figure below)
pertain to this kind of morality
▪ These commandments deal with a person’s relationship with
God, not with any other human beings
✓ violating any of these three commandments, a person
could, according to this particular code of ethics, act
immorally toward God without acting immorally toward
anyone else
• I am the Lord; Your God do not worship false gods.
• Do not take the name of God in vain.
13
 • Keep holy the Sabbath Day
3.4.2. Morality and Nature
▪ refers to a human being in relationship to nature
▪ Natural morality has been prevalent in all primitive cultures
▪ Some see nature as being valuable only for the good of
humanity, but many others have come to see it as a good in
itself, worthy of moral consideration
▪ In Robinson Crusoe desert-island example
✓ he could be considered either moral or immoral,
depending upon his actions toward the natural things
around him
3.4.3. Individual Morality
▪ refers to individuals in relation to themselves and to an
individual code of morality that may or may not be sanctioned
by any society or religion
▪ It allows for a “higher morality,” which can be found within the
individual rather than beyond this world in some supernatural
realm
▪ A person may or may not perform some particular act, not
because society, law, or religion says he may or may not, but
because he himself thinks it is right or wrong from within his
own conscience
3.4.4. Social Morality
▪ concerns a human being in relation to other human beings
▪ It is probably the most important aspect of morality, in that it
cuts across all of the other aspects and is found in more ethical
systems than any of the others
▪ In Robinson Crusoe desert-island example
✓ He is incapable of any really moral or immoral action
except toward himself and nature
14
3.5. Who is Morally/Ethically Responsible?
▪ Morality pertains to human beings and only to human beings;
all else is speculation
✓ If attribute morality to supernatural beings - one has to do
so solely on faith
✓ If attribute morality to animals or plants - one has to
ignore most of the evidence that science has given us
concerning the instinctual behavior of such beings and
the evidence of our own everyday observations
o most evidence seems to indicate that animals, as
and plants should be classified as either non-moral
or amoral - that is, they should be considered either
as having no moral sense or as being out of the
moral sphere altogether
▪ only human beings can be moral or immoral, and therefore
only human beings should be held morally responsible for
their actions and behavior
3.5.1. Moral Judgments
▪ refer to deciding what is right and what is wrong in human
relations
Moral judgments are:
- have to do with the actions of human beings and, in
particular, with voluntary actions - those actions freely
chosen
- Evaluative; because they place value on things or
relation or human actions; determine what is right or
wrong, good or bad
- Normative; because they evaluate or assess the moral
worth of something based on some norms or standards
▪ We can have no algorithm for judgment, since every
15
 application of a rule would itself need supplementing with
further rules
✓ moral principles do not provide us with an “auto-pilot” for
life and that “judgment” is always needed in using or
following – and in flouting – rules or principles
In judging conduct or action, we have to consider
➢ Motives:
✓ motive refers to the intention or why an action is done
✓ It basic for a determination of morality
✓ A good motive is a prerequisite to conduct that we
approve without qualification
❖ Kant state - Nothing can possibly be conceived in the
world, or even out of it, which can be called good
without qualification, except a good will
✓ rational being strives to do what he or she ought to do
and this is to be distinguished from an act that a person
does from either inclination or self-interest
❖ a person must act out of duty to the moral law - that
is, ought what one to do
- the good will acts out of a sense of duty
➢ Means
✓ There may be many means for achieving something
✓ The term means can be defined - as an agency,
instrument, or method used to attain an end
✓ we expect people to use the best available means to
carry out their purposes condemn them if their choice of
means impresses us as unjust, cruel, or immoral
• there is a danger in proposing that any means may
be used, provided the end is good, or that ― the end
justifies the means

16
 ➢ Consequences
✓ the effects or results of a moral decision based on a
value
✓ Ordinarily, when people ask, - what is right? they are
thinking about the consequences of the action
- Kant agrees to the good motive, utilitarians to
the result
o society judges conduct “right” if it
- proceeds from a good motive
- through the use of the best available means
- to consequences that are good
➢ The Moral Situation
✓ It involves moral agents - human beings who act, are
empowered to make choices, and consciously make
decisions
• As moral agents, demands are made on us and
place us under obligations: we have both duties and
rights
✓ We are faced with moral alternatives, and we can
better weigh those alternatives when we have an
understanding of the ingredients of the moral situation
3.5.2. What Makes an Action Moral?
▪ Sometimes we think of “morall” means morally good
o But, philosophically, it refers to an action which comes
within the scope of morality
o an action which is morally significant either in positive way
( because it is good or right) or in a negative way (because
the action is good or bad)
▪ Not all actions have a moral sense
✓ putting on a raincoat, sharpening a pencil, or counting
apples…
✓ are not in themselves either good or bad acts - Such
17
 actions are morally neutral or non-moral
features that make an action moral
➢ A moral act involves an agent
✓ natural event or an action performed by animals, then it
is morally neutral - it does not appear on our moral
radars
✓ Humans can be moral agents, or any creatures that
can freely and thoughtfully choose its actions will count
as a moral agent.
➢ A moral act involves intention
✓ intention here refers to our motives
✓ If an action is done accidentally, it may be counted as
a morally neutral action
• However, some unintentional acts, such as those
done through negligence, can be moral. Neglecting
our duties, even accidentally, make us morally
culpable
➢ A moral act affects others
✓ Moral action is an action that has harmful (be it
physical, psychological, emotional, or depriving others
of happiness) or beneficial consequences for others.
✓ Confusion about the content of morality arises because
morality is not always distinguished from religion
Generally, a moral action is one which
• performed by agents: creatures that are capable of
free choice/ free will
• Is the result of intention: the action was done on
purpose with a particular motive
• Has a significant consequence on others: in respect
of harm or benefits it brings about

18
3.6. Why Should Human Beings Be Moral?
- There can be no society without moral regulation; man is man
only because he lives in a society
➢ Argument from Enlightened Self-Interest
✓ generally better to be good rather than bad and to
create a world and society that is good rather than one
that is bad
✓ if everyone tried to do and be good and tried to avoid
and prevent bad, it would be in everyone‘s self-interest
• For example, if within a group of people no one
killed, stole, lied, or cheated, then each member of
the group would benefit
➢ Argument from Tradition and Law
✓ because traditions and laws, established over a long
period of time, govern the behavior of human beings
✓ these traditions and laws urge human beings to be
moral rather than immoral, there are good reasons for
being so
• most of us probably learned morality through being
confronted with this argument, the religious
argument, and the experiences surrounding it
➢ Common Human Needs
✓ that all human beings have many needs, desires, goals,
and objectives in common
- Example: people generally seem to need
friendship, love, happiness, freedom, peace,
creativity
✓ in order to satisfy these needs, people must establish
and follow moral principles that encourage them to
cooperate with one another and that free them from
fear

19
 ▪ why should human beings be moral?
❖ generally, can best be answered by the statement that
adhering to moral principles enables human beings to live
their lives as peacefully, happily, creatively, and
meaningfully as is possible
▪ “Why be moral?” Among the more common answers are these:
✓ Behaving morally is a matter of self-respect
✓ People won’t like us if we behave immorally
✓ Society punishes immoral behavior
✓ God tells us to be moral
✓ Parents need to be moral role models for their children
▪ There are two distinct components to the question “Why be
moral?”
• Why does society need moral rules?
• Why should I be moral?
▪ From Hobbes’s perspective, morality consists of a set of rules
such that, if nearly everyone follows them, then nearly
everyone will flourish
✓ These rules restrict our freedom but promote greater
freedom and wellbeing
▪ The five social benefits of establishing and following moral
rules accomplish the following:
1. Keep society from falling apart
2. Reduce human suffering
3. Promote human flourishing
4. Resolve conflicts of interest in just and orderly ways
5. Assign praise and blame, reward and punishment, and
guilt
▪ Morality is a social activity: It has to do with society, not the
individual in isolation
❖ Morality is thus a set of rules that enable us to reach our
collective goals
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21
Moral and Civics Chapter 4

More Quick Notes, Telegram: @campus_handout / https://t.me/campus_handout

Chapter Four: State, Government and Citizenship

4.1. Chapter Introduction

4.2. Chapter Objectives

4.3. Understanding State

4.3.1. Defining State
• state has been understood in four quite different ways.
1. Idealist perspective
▪ Hegel identified three moments of social existence
➢ Family
✓ altruism operates that encourages people to set aside their
own interests for the good of their children or elderly
relatives
➢ Civil society
 ✓ Seen as a sphere of ‘universal egoism’ in which individuals
place their own interests before those of others
➢ State
✓ ethical community underpinned by mutual sympathy –
‘universal altruism’
▪ drawback of idealism
o it fosters an uncritical reverence for the state
o by defining the state in ethical terms, fails to distinguish clearly
between institutions that are part of the state and those that are
outside the state
2. Functionalist approach/perspective
▪ focus on the role or purpose of state institutions
▪ central function of the state is invariably seen as the maintenance of
social order
▪ state - set of institutions that uphold order and deliver social
stability.
▪ state as a mechanism through which class conflict is ameliorated to
ensure the long-term survival of the capitalist system
▪ weakness of the functionalist

2
 o tends to associate any institution that maintains order (such as
the family, mass media, trade unions and the church) with the
state itself
3. Organizational view/perspective
▪ State - set of institutions that are recognizably ‘public’, in that
they are responsible for the collective organization of social
existence and are funded at the public’s expense
▪ It distinguishes clearly between the state and civil society
▪ The organizational approach allows us to talk about ‘rolling forward’
or ‘rolling back’ the state, in the sense of expanding or contracting
the responsibilities of the state, and enlarging or diminishing its
institutional machinery
4. International approach/perspective
▪ State - primarily actor on the world stage; indeed, as the basic
‘unit’ of international politics
▪ dualistic structure of the state, its two faces:
➢ state’s inward-looking face
✓ its relations with the individuals and groups that live within
its borders, and its ability to maintain domestic order
➢ state’s outward-looking face

3
 ✓ its relations with other states and, therefore, its ability to
provide protection against external attack
▪ Classic definition of the state in international law is found in the
Montevideo Convention on the Rights and Duties of the State (1933)
▪ According to Article 1 of the Montevideo Convention, the state has
four features
A. Population
o without population there can be no state
o states of the world vary in terms of demographic strength
✓ population of greater than 1 billion - China and India
✓ constituency of few thousand people - Vatican and San
Marino
❖ No exact number can be given to how much
people constitute state
o Homogeneity - commonness of religion, or blood, or
language or culture and the like
✓ it makes the task of national integration easy
✓ Homogeneity is not must
B. Defined Territory
o territory of a state includes land, water, and airspace
o territorial authority of a state also extends to
4
 ✓ ships on high seas under its flag
✓ its embassies
✓ legations/diplomat’s residence in foreign lands
o size of a state’s territory cannot be fixed
o boundary lines of a state must be well marked out
▪ geographical make up - division by the seas, rivers,
mountains, thick forests, deserts, etc
▪ artificial divisions - digging trenches or fixing pointed
wire fencing
C. Government
o It the soul of the state
✓ It implements the will of the community
✓ protects the people against conditions of insecurity
✓ maintain law and order and makes ‘good life’
possible
o the machinery that terminates the condition of anarchy
✓ if there is no government, there is anarchy and the
state is at an end
o form of government may be
✓ monarchical, oligarchic, democratic, dictatorial, etc
D. Sovereignty
5
 o It is the highest power of the state that distinguishes
it from all other associations of human beings
o Sovereignty is the principle of absolute and unlimited
power
o It has two aspects
➢ Internal Sovereignty
▪ inside the state there can be no other authority that
may claim equality with it
▪ state is the final source of all laws internally
➢ External sovereignty
▪ state should be free from foreign control of any
kind
o state may willingly accepts some international obligations
o existence of sovereign authority appears in the form of law
o sovereign state is legally competent to issue any
command that is binding on all citizens and their
associations
recognition
✓ the contemporary political theorists and the UN considered
recognition as the fifth essential attribute of the state

6
 ✓ state should be recognized as such by a significant portion of
the international community
✓ for a state to be legal actor in the international stage; other
actors must recognize it as a state
4.4. Rival Theories of State
4.4.1. The Pluralist State
• It has a very clear liberal lineage
• It stems from the belief that the state acts as an ‘umpire’ or ‘referee’ in
society
• The origins of this view of the state can be traced back to the social-contract
theories of thinkers such as Thomas Hobbes and John Locke
✓ state had arisen out of a voluntary agreement, or social contract, made
by individuals who recognized that only the establishment of a sovereign
power could safeguard them from the insecurity, disorder and brutality of
the state of nature
• In liberal theory
o state - a neutral arbiter amongst the competing groups and individuals in
society - protecting each citizen from the encroachments of fellow citizens
• Hobbes’ view

7
 ❖ stability and order could be secured only through the establishment of an
absolute and unlimited state, with power that could be neither challenged,
nor questioned
• Locke, on the other hand
❖ developed a more typically liberal defense of the limited state
✓ In his view, the purpose of the state is very specific: it is restricted to
the defense of a set of ‘natural’ or God-given individual rights;
namely, life, liberty and property
✓ since the state may threaten natural rights as easily as it may uphold
them, citizens must enjoy some form of protection against the state,
which Locke believed could be delivered only through the
mechanisms of constitutional and representative government
• pluralism holds that the state is neutral
✓ state is not biased
✓ It does not have an interest of its own that is separate from those of
society
✓ state is ‘the servant of society and not its master’
• Two key assumptions underlie this view
➢ state is effectively subordinate to government
✓ Non-elected state bodies (civil service, judiciary, police) are strictly
impartial and are subject to the authority of their political masters
8
 ➢ the democratic process is meaningful and effective
✓ party competition and interest-group
✓ state is only a weather vane that is blown in whichever direction the
public-at-large dictates
• Modern pluralists/ neo-pluralist theory of the state
o By theorists such as Robert Dahl and Charles Lindblom
o modern industrialized states are both more complex and less responsive
to popular pressures than classical pluralism suggested
✓ for instance business enjoys a ‘privileged position’ in relation to
government that other groups clearly cannot rival
✓ business is bound to exercise considerable sway over any
government,
o state can, and does, forge its own sectional interests
✓ state elite pursue either the bureaucratic interests of their sector of
the state, or the interests of client groups
4.4.2. The Capitalist State
• Marxist notion of a capitalist state offers a clear alternative to the pluralist
image of the state as a neutral arbiter or umpire
• The state cannot be understood separately from the economic structure of
society

9
 o state is nothing but an instrument of class oppression: the state emerges
out of, and in a sense reflects, the class system
• In a general sense, he believed that the state is part of a ‘superstructure’ that
is determined or conditioned by the economic ‘base’
• Two theories of the state can be identified in Marx’s writings
➢ The executive of the modern state is but a committee for managing the
common affairs of the whole bourgeoisie
✓ state as an instrument for the oppression of the exploited class
➢ The state could enjoy what has come to be seen as ‘relative autonomy’
from the class system
✓ the autonomy of the state is only relative, in that the state appears to
mediate between conflicting classes, and so maintains the class
system itself in existence
❖ Both these theories emphasize that the state cannot be understood
except in a context of unequal class power
✓ state arises out of, and reflects, capitalist society
❖ Marx’s attitude towards the state was not entirely negative
✓ He argued that - the state could be used constructively during the
transition from capitalism to communism in the form of the ‘revolutionary
dictatorship of the proletariat’
❖ In describing the state as a proletarian ‘dictatorship’
10
 ✓ Marx see the state as an instrument through which the economically
dominant class (by then, the proletariat) could repress and subdue other
classes
✓ ‘dictatorship of the proletariat’ was seen as a means of safeguarding the
gains of the revolution by preventing counter-revolution mounted by the
dispossessed bourgeoisie
❖ Marx did not see the state as a necessary or enduring social formation
o He predicted that, as class antagonisms faded, the state would ‘wither
away’, meaning that a fully communist society would also be stateless
❖ modern Marxists, or neo-Marxists
✓ emphasized the degree to which the domination of the ruling class is
achieved by ideological manipulation, rather than just open coercion
✓ bourgeois domination is maintained largely through ‘hegemony’: that is,
intellectual leadership or cultural control, with the state playing an
important role in the process
o Rather than being an ‘instrument’ wielded by a dominant group or
ruling class, the state is thus a dynamic entity that reflects the
balance of power within society at any given time, and the ongoing
struggle for hegemony
❖ Therefore state cannot but act to perpetuate the social system in which it
operates.
11
4.4.3. The Leviathan State
• The image of the state as a ‘leviathan’ is one associated in modern politics
with the New Right.
❖ New Right, or at least its neoliberal wing, is distinguished by
✓ a strong antipathy towards state intervention in economic and social life,
born out of the belief that - the state is parasitic growth that threatens
both individual liberty and economic security
✓ the state, instead of being, as pluralists suggest, an impartial umpire or
arbiter, is an overbearing ‘nanny’, desperate to interfere or meddle in
every aspect of human existence
✓ the state pursues interests that are separate from those of society
• New Right theorists explain the expansionist dynamics of state power by
reference to both demand-side and supply-side pressures
➢ Demand-side pressures
o emanate from society itself through the mechanism of electoral
democracy
o electoral competition encourages politicians to ‘outbid’ one another
by making promises of increased spending and more generous
government programs, regardless of the long-term damage
➢ Supply-side pressures

12
 o those that are internal to the state - the institutions and personnel of
the state apparatus
o public decisions are made on the assumption that the individuals
involved act in a rationally self-interested fashion
❖ While Marxists argue that the state reflects broader class and other social
interests, the New Right portrays the state as an independent or
autonomous entity that pursues its own interests
✓ bureaucratic self-interest invariably supports ‘big’ government and state
intervention
4.4.4. The Patriarchal State
• It is implications of feminist theory
• concentrate on the deeper structure of male power centered on institutions
such as the family and the economic system
❖ Liberal feminists
• believe that sexual or gender equality can be brought about through
incremental reform, have tended to accept an essentially pluralist view of
the state
• They recognize that, if women are denied legal and political equality, and
especially the right to vote, the state is biased in favor of men

13
 • believe that all groups (including women) have potentially equal access to
state power, and that this can be used impartially to promote justice and the
common good
• Liberal feminists usually viewed the state in positive terms, seeing state
intervention as a means of redressing gender inequality and enhancing the
role of women
❖ Radical feminists
• more critical and negative view of the state
• argue that state power reflects a deeper structure of oppression in the form
of patriarchy
• There are a number of similarities between Marxist and radical feminist
views of state power
o Whereas Marxists place the state in an economic context, radical
feminists place it in a context of gender inequality, and insist that it is
essentially an institution of male power
• In common with Marxism, distinctive instrumentalist and structuralist versions
of this feminist position have been developed
➢ Instrumentalist
✓ State as little more than an agent or ‘tool’ used by men to defend
their own interests and uphold the structures of patriarchy

14
 ✓ patriarchy - men dominating public while women are confined to
private’ spheres of life
✓ in this view, the state is run by men, and for men
➢ structuralist
✓ Emphasize the degree to which state institutions are embedded in a
wider patriarchal system
✓ Modern radical feminists have paid particular attention to the
emergence of the welfare state
▪ Welfare - a transition from private dependence (in which
women as ‘home makers’ are dependent on men as
‘breadwinners’) to a system of public dependence in which
women are increasingly controlled by the institutions of the
extended state
▪ For instance, women have become increasingly dependent on
the state as clients or customers of state services (such as
childcare institutions, nursery education and social work) and
as employees, particularly in the so-called ‘caring’ professions
(such as nursing, social work and education)
4.5. The Role of the State
4.5.1. Minimal States
• is the ideal of classical liberals
15
 • It is rooted in social-contract theory, but it nevertheless advances an
essentially ‘negative’ view of the state
✓ the value of the state is to prevent individuals encroaching on the rights
and liberties of others
• state is merely a protective body, its core function being to provide a
framework of peace and social order
• state acts as a night watchman, whose services are called upon only when
orderly existence is threatened
• the ‘minimal’ or ‘night watchman’ state with three core functions
1. maintain domestic order
2. ensures that contracts or voluntary agreements made between private
citizens are enforced
3. provides protection against external attack
• institutional apparatus of a minimal state is thus limited to a police force, a
court system and a military of some kind
• Economic, social, cultural, moral and other responsibilities belong to
the individual, and are therefore firmly part of civil society
👉 The best historical examples of minimal states were those in countries such as
the UK and the USA during the period of early industrialization in the nineteenth
century

16
4.5.2. Developmental States
• As a general rule the later a country industrializes, the more extensive will be
its state’s economic role
✓ for instance In Japan and Germany state assumed a more active
‘developmental’ role from the outset
• A developmental state is one that intervenes in economic life with the
specific purpose of promoting industrial growth and economic
development
o This does not amount to an attempt to replace the market with a ‘socialist’
system of planning and control
o It is an attempt to construct a partnership between the state and major
economic interests
• The classic example of a developmental state is Japan
• A similar model of developmental intervention has existed in France
• In countries such as Austria and, to some extent, Germany, economic
development has been achieved through the construction of
o ‘partnership state’ a close relationship between the state and major
economic interests, notably big business and organized labor
• More recently, economic globalization has fostered the emergence of
o ‘competition states’, examples the tiger economies of East Asia

17
 ✓ recognized the need to strengthen education and training as the
principal guaranteeing economic success in a context of intensifying
transnational competition
4.5.3. Social Democratic (Welfare) States
• Social-democratic states intervene with a view to bringing about broader
social restructuring, usually in accordance with principles such as fairness,
equality and social justice
• In countries such as Austria and Sweden, state intervention has been guided
by both developmental and social democratic priorities
✓ Nevertheless, developmentalism and social democracy do not always go
hand-in-hand, Example UK failed to evolve into a developmental state
✓ social-democratic state is that there is a shift from a ‘negative’ view of
the state to a positive view of the state - as a means of enlarging liberty
and promoting justice
✓ social-democratic state is thus the ideal of both modern liberals and
democratic socialists
• the social-democratic state is an active participant; in particular, helping to
rectify the imbalances and injustices of a market economy
o focus less upon the generation of wealth and more upon what is seen as
the equitable or just distribution of wealth
o It is an attempt to eradicate poverty and reduce social inequality
18
 • twin features of a social democratic state are therefore Keynesianism and
social welfare
➢ Keynesian economic policies
✓ The aim is to ‘manage’ or ‘regulate’ capitalism with a view to
promoting growth and maintaining full employment
➢ welfare policies
✓ responsibilities have extended to the promotion of social well-being
amongst their citizens
✓ The social-democratic state is an ‘enabling state’, dedicated to the
principle of individual empowerment
4.5.4. Collectivized States
• Collectivized states bring the entirety of economic life under state control
• Best examples were in orthodox communist countries such as the USSR and
throughout Eastern Europe
• It sought to abolish private enterprise altogether, and set up centrally planned
economies administered by a network of economic ministries and planning
committees
• The justification for state collectivization stems from a fundamental socialist
preference for common ownership over private property
4.5.5. Totalitarian States
• It is The most extreme and extensive form of interventionism
19
 • It is the construction of an all-embracing state, the influence of which
penetrates every aspect of human existence
✓ economy, education, culture, religion, family life and so on
✓ best examples - Hitler’s Germany and Stalin’s USSR, although modern
regimes such as Saddam Hussein’s Iraq
• central pillars of such regimes are a comprehensive process of surveillance
and terroristic policing, and a pervasive system of ideological manipulation
and control
✓ totalitarian states effectively extinguish civil society and abolish the
private sphere of life altogether
✓ This is a goal that only fascists, who wish to dissolve individual identity
within the social whole, are prepared openly to endorse
4.5.6. Religious States
• countries such as Norway, Denmark and the UK, ‘established’ or state
religions have developed
❖ Far from regarding political realm as inherently corrupt, fundamentalist
movements have typically looked to seize control of the state and to use
it as an instrument of moral and spiritual regeneration
✓ for instance, in the process of ‘Islamization’ introduced in Pakistan under
General Zia-ul-Haq after 1978

20
 ✓ establishment of an ‘Islamic state’ in Iran as a result of the 1979
revolution
• Although, strictly speaking, religious states are founded on the basis of
religious principles, and, in the Iranian model, contain explicitly theocratic
features, in other cases religiously-orientated governments operate in a
context of constitutional secularism
4.6. Understanding Government
4.6.1. What is Government?
• Government refer to the formal and institutional processes that operate
at the national level to maintain public order and facilitate collective
action
✓ one of the most essential components and also an administrative wing of
the state
• government applies both to the governments of national states, and to the
governments of subdivisions of national states
❖ government, to be stable and effective, must possess two essential
attributes
1. Authority
o It implies the ability to compel obedience, defined as ‘legitimate
power’

21
 ✓ While power is the ability to influence the behavior of others,
authority is the right to do so
o It is based on an acknowledged duty to obey rather than on any form
of coercion or manipulation
o It is the legitimacy, justification and right to exercise that power
2. Legitimacy
o Legitimacy, from Latin word legitimare - meaning ‘to declare lawful’
o It broadly means rightfulness
o legitimacy is the popular acceptance of a governing regime or
law as an authority
o Legitimacy is considered as a basic condition to rule; without at least
a minimal amount of legitimacy, a government will deadlock or
collapse
o legitimacy is gained through the acquisition of power in accordance
with recognized or accepted standards or principles
o legitimate government will ‘do the right thing’ and therefore deserves
to be respected and obeyed
o legitimacy differs from legality in the sense that
▪ the term legality does not necessarily guarantee that a
government is respected or that its citizens acknowledge a duty
of obedience
22
4.6.2. Purposes and Functions of Government
• different governments may serve various purposes and functions
• the major purposes and functions of government include the following
❖ Self-Preservation
✓ as their first and primary purpose and function, governments are
responsible to Prevail order, predictability, internal security, and
external defense
❖ Distribution and Regulation of Resources
✓ determine whether resources are going to be controlled by the public
or private sector
o socialist states - decide to be controlled by the public
o capitalist states - decide to be controlled by the private sector
o other states may place in between - controlled by both the public
and private
❖ Management of Conflicts
✓ supervision and resolution of conflicts that may arise in society
❖ Fulfillment of Social or Group Aspirations
✓ fulfill the goals and interests of the society
✓ These aspirations may include the promotion of human rights,
common good, and international peace
❖ Protection of Rights of Citizens
23
 ❖ Protection of Property
✓ police and the court systems that protect private and public property
❖ Implementations of Moral Conditions
✓ to shape citizens character in accordance with some standard of
morality
❖ Provision of Goods and Services
✓ Some governments, especially those of the poor countries,
participate heavily in the provision of goods and services for the
public
4.7. Understanding Citizenship
4.7.1. Defining Citizenship
Citizen
• the person who is a legal member of a particular State and one who
owes allegiance to that State
• a person who is legally recognized as member of a particular, officially
sovereign political community, entitled to whatever prerogatives and
encumbered with responsibilities
citizenship
• The means by which we determine whether a person is legal member of
a particular State or otherwise

24
 • refers to the rules regulating the legal/formal relations between the State and
the individual with respect to the acquisition and loss of a given country’s
nationality
• Several countries refer to the term citizenship in their national language as
expressing merely the judicial relationship between the citizen and the State
while others denote it with the social roles of citizens in their society
i. Citizenship as a Status of Right
▪ mere fact of being a citizen makes the person a creditor of a series of
rights
▪ Hohfeld discovered four components of rights known as ‘the Hohfeldian
incidents
a. Liberty Right
✓ is a freedom given for the right-holder to do something
✓ The beholder got benefits from liberty rights without obliging others
✓ no one including the State has any legitimate authority to interfere
with the citizen’s freedom except to prevent harm to others
✓ Example: every citizen has the right to movement
b. Claim Rights
✓ Are the inverse of liberty rights since it entails responsibility upon
another person or body

25
 ✓ claim rights are rights enjoyed by individuals when others
discharge their obligations
✓ Example: unemployment and public service benefits
❖ Liberty and claim rights termed as primary rules, rules requiring that
people perform or refrain from doing particular action
❖ The remaining two are secondary rules specify how agents/beholders
can introduce, change and alter the primary rules (liberty and claim
rights)
c. Powers Rights
✓ The holder of a power, be it a government or a citizen, can change
or cancel other people and his/her own entitlements
✓ Examples
o The right to renounce citizenship/nationality
d. Immunity Rights
✓ allow bearers escape from controls and thus they are the opposite
of power rights
✓ entail the absence of a power in other party to alter the right-
holder’s normative situation in some way
✓ Examples
o civil servants have a right not to be dismissed from their job
after a new government comes to power
26
 o Witness in the court has a right not to be ordered to
incriminate himself/herself
ii. Membership and Identity
• Citizenship is associated with membership of a political community
• implies integration into that community with a specific identity that is
common to all members who belongs to it
• However, nowadays, we often use citizenship to signify not just
membership in some group but certain standards of proper conduct
✓ It obviously implies that only ‘good’ citizens are genuine citizens in
the full meaning of the term
iii. Participation
• individuals differ in what approaches they find important – some people
focus on their private affairs while others actively participate in the life of
the society, including politics
• There are two approaches
o A minimalist approach to citizenship - kind of basic passive
compliance with the rules of a particular community/State
o maximalist approach - active, broad participation of citizens
engagement in the State

27
 • Ferguson asserts, people cannot realize their rights if they fail to exercise
their democratic rights to participation in decision-making that affect,
directly or indirectly, their affairs

iv. Inclusion and Exclusion

• All individuals living in a particular state do not necessary mean that all
are citizens
• aliens, therefore, have rights just like the Ethiopian citizens such as the
right to life, movement, and protection of the law, and also have shared
responsibilities
• However, citizens are fundamentally different from aliens in enjoying
privileges and shouldering responsibilities
o There are some political and economic rights that are reserved to
and duties to be discharged by citizens only, example
✓ Ethiopian citizen has the right to get access to land, vote and to
be elected and get Ethiopian passport
• Citizenship status, however, is not only restricted to persons.
Organizations and [endemic] animals could also be considered as
citizens
o The term "corporate citizenship" (CC) has been used increasingly by
corporations
28
 o Just like citizens, corporations and private organizations do have the
right, duty, and beyond the formal responsibilities, they have also
corporate social responsibility (CSR).
❖ In the era of globalization, it has become increasingly customary to use
‘citizen’ in a different way to indicate membership of a person beyond a
particular political community, the State
✓ Terms like ‘global citizen’ or ‘cosmopolitan citizen’ are commonly used
to refer to every human living in the earth planet
4.7.2. Theorizing Citizenship
• Citizenship is not an eternal essence rather a cultural artifact mold by people
through time
• there are different approaches to citizenship, the most contemporary are
following four approaches
4.7.2.1. Citizenship in Liberal Thought
• In liberalism the primary political unit as well as the initial focus of all
fundamental political inquiry is the individual person
• Liberals insist that individuals should be free to decide on their own
conception of the good life, and applaud the liberation of individuals from any
ascribed or inherited status
• Locke argued that natural law and the reason to apprehend compel
individuals to consider their own and others interests, to enter into civil and
29
 political society, act in the community and thus to value social cooperation
and self-restraint
• the individual is morally prior to the community: the community matters only
because it contributes to the well-being of the individuals who compose it
• citizenship and other political institutions in a given State are means that are
accepted only conditionally – i.e., as long as they, in the individual’s
calculations, foster the maximization of the citizen’s preferences/benefits
• the role of the State is to protect and create convenient environment to help
citizens enjoy and exercise of their rights; the State has an instrumental
function
✓ According to Mill, individual liberty and State action tend to be opposed to
each other
✓ Increasing the power of the State means reducing individual liberty
• individuals have the right to choose their level of participation in the
community in order to fulfill and maximize their own self-interest. If they
choose not to do so, their citizenship is not jeopardized
• There are three fundamental principles which a liberal government must
provide and protect
➢ Equality - government has to treat individuals who are similarly situated in
the same way and afford them the same rights

30
 ➢ due process - government is required to treat individuals over whom it
exercises power fairly
➢ mutual consent - membership in the political community rests on the
consensual relationship between the individual and the state
❖ By protecting these three values, the government ensures that it provides
protection for individuals' rights and liberties, so they can effectively
participate in the political sphere
• the bedrock principles of liberal theory of citizenship are
👉 individuals are free to form their own opinions, pursue their own projects,
and transact their own business untrammeled by the State’s political agenda
and coercive power, except in so far as individual actions implicate the
interests of other members of society
• Citizenship cannot be defined based on shared identity or a common culture;
the individual chooses his own affections, and any identification with other
individuals is rather a product of their legal status as citizens
Critics of Liberal Theory of Citizenship
1) The most common problems related with advocating individualism are free-
raiders problem and the tragedy of the commons
➢ free raiders problem

31
 ✓ occurs when those who benefit from resource or service do not
pay for it, which results in an under provision of the
resource/service
✓ Particularly it occurs when property rights are not clearly defined
and imposed
➢ tragedy of the commons
✓ a dilemma arises when individuals act independently and rationally
consulting their own self-interest ultimately deplete shared limited
environmental resources, Since no one owns the commons
2) liberalists affirmatively valorize the privatization of personality, commitment,
and activity, the problem has to do with is the ways in which individuals and
their ideas are framed
✓ The preferences and insights of autonomous individuals might originate
from impure process, the information they were provided might be biased
or meaningless, or their preferences might have arisen from a fit of anger
3) individuals have absolute freedom either to actively engage in politics or
ignore at all, liberal societies tend to be less egalitarian
✓ if many citizens are not willing to devote time or give attention to politics,
power will become an instrument of the few rather than of the many,
therefore diminishes the social prestige

32
 4) For several reasons, liberalism may actually increase economic and other
kinds of inequalities rather than reduce them
✓ The persistence of inequalities among liberal citizens and between them
and aliens are bound to engender much social and political unrest and
tensions
✓ More fundamentally, liberalism contrives to keep the State weak and
permeable to private interests
5) liberalism posits a State that maintains substantial normative neutrality
✓ The issues of how liberal State’s role remains modest become a matter of
great controversy and of course history has proved impossibility of the
State to maintain neutral
4.7.2.2. Citizenship in Communitarian Thought
• Communitarianism is as an approach emphasizes on the importance of
society in articulating the good
• communitarian (also known as the nationalist) model argue that the identity of
citizens cannot be understood outside the territory in which they live, their
culture and traditions, arguing that the basis of its rules and procedures and
legal policy is the shared common good
• rather than viewing group practices as the product of individual choices,
communitarians view individuals as the product of social practices

33
 • communitarians often deny that the interests of communities can be reduced
to the interests of their individual members
✓ Privileging individual autonomy is seen as destructive of communities
✓ healthy community maintains a balance between individual choice and
protection of the communal way of life and seeks to limit the extent to
which the former can erode the latter
• Communitarianism claims that an individual’s sense of identity is produced
only through relations with others in the community that nourish him/her
• All in all, the two defining features of communitarian perspective are
➢ no individual is entirely self-created; instead the citizen and his/her
identity is deeply constructed by the society where he/she is a member
✓ It is only when an individual successfully assimilates to the society
that the society achieve its common goals and become effective
➢ as a consequence of assimilation, a meaningful bond is said to occur
between the individual person and his/her community
✓ individual understands that what is good for the community is good
for him as well
Critics of Communitarian citizenship
• Communitarianism is hostile towards individual rights and autonomy – even
that it is authoritarian since it melts the self into the society

34
 • communities are dominated by power elites or that one group within a
community will force others to abide by its values
4.7.2.3. Citizenship in Republican Thought
• Republican citizenship theory put emphasis on both individual and group
rights
✓ It attempts to incorporate the liberal notion of the self-interested individual
within the communitarian framework of egalitarian and community
belonging
• Citizenship should be understood as a common civic identity, shaped by a
common public culture
• It requires citizens to bring together the facets of their individual lives as best
they can and helps them to find unity in the midst of diversity
▪ However, republicans don’t pressurize individuals to surrender their
particular identities like the communitarian thought.It encourages people
to look for the common ground
• Just like liberal citizenship though, republican school advocate self-
government. Yet, republican thought do not agree with the case that all forms
of restraints deprive people’s freedom
✓ In contrast to liberalism, individuals must overcome their personal
inclinations and set aside their private interests when necessary to do
what is best for the public
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 ✓ Republicans, thus, acknowledge the value of public life
• there are two essential elements of the republican citizenship: publicity and
self-government
➢ Publicity
o refers to the condition of being open and public
o public affairs such as politics, as the common concern of the
public, must be conducted openly in the public for reasons of
convenience
➢ Self-government
o without citizens who are willing to take an active part in the
government, a republic State could not survive
o The rule of law thus requires not only active and public-spirited
participation in public affairs – the civic virtue of the republican
citizen – but also the proper form of government
Critics of republican citizenship
• republican conception of citizenship is no longer realistic
✓ Republican citizenship is an irredeemably nostalgic ideal in this age of
globalization
✓ The Internet and satellite television are unlikely to inspire this sense of
community on a global basis
• the conception poses a threat to an open, egalitarian, and pluralistic society
36
 ✓ republican attempts because in practice republican politicians enforced
homogeneity by excluding from citizenship all those defined as different
✓ the search for common ground serves to justify the dominance of a
particular – and typically male – group
• concerns the claim that citizenship involves a false ideal of impartiality
4.7.2.4. Multicultural Citizenship
• the conception of citizenship in a modern State should be expanded to include
cultural rights and group rights within a democratic framework
• multicultural citizenship appropriate to highly diverse societies and
contemporary economic trends
• Recognition of group difference implies departing from the idea of all citizens
as simply equal individuals and instead seeing them simultaneously as having
equal rights as individuals and different needs and wants as members of
groups with specific characteristics and social situations
• focus of multicultural citizenship discuss four principles of multicultural
citizenship
1. Taking equality of citizenship rights as a starting point
✓ all members of society are formally included as citizens, and enjoy
equal rights and equality before the law
2. Recognizing that Formal equality of rights does not necessarily lead to
equality of respect, resources, opportunities or welfare
37
 ✓ Formal equality can mask and legitimize disadvantage and
discrimination
✓ multicultural school of thought envisage the need for additional rights
for vulnerable minority groups, in order for such groups to sustain
themselves amidst the dominant culture(s)
3. Establishing mechanisms for group representation and participation
✓ Despite formal equality, disadvantaged groups are often excluded
from decision-making processes
✓ It is necessary to make arrangements to ensure the participation of
people directly affected, wherever important decisions are made
4. Differential treatment for people with different characteristics, needs and
wants
✓ Treating people equally, despite the fact that past actions have made
them unequal, can perpetuate inequality
✓ Government should take measures to combat barriers based on
gender, sexual preference, age, disability, location, Aboriginality,
ethnicity, religion, area of origin and culture
✓ multicultural citizenship allows for marginalized voices to be
heard
❖ Critics of differentiated citizenship worry that if groups are encouraged by
the very terms of citizenship to turn inward and focus on their 'difference'
38
 ✓ Citizenship will cease to be a device to cultivate a sense of
community and a common sense of purpose. Nothing will bind the
various groups in society together and prevent the spread of mutual
mistrust or conflict
✓ Critics also worry that differentiated citizenship would create a
"politics of grievance."
4.7.3. Modes/Ways of Acquiring and Loosing Citizenship
• Citizenship right guaranteed to individuals by the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights adopted in 1948, Article 15
4.7.3.1. Ways of Acquiring Citizenship
• the common ways of acquiring citizenship can be grouped in to two:
citizenship by birth and citizenship through naturalization/law
i. Citizenship from birth/of Origin
▪ individuals can get citizenship status of a particular State either
✓ because he/she is born in the territorial administration of that state
✓ or his/her mother and/or father are citizens of the State in question
▪ there are two principles of citizenship from birth commonly known as
➢ Jus Soli (law/right of the soil)
o Obtain citizenship because he/she was born in the territorial
administration of that country
➢ Jus Sanguinis (law/right of blood)
39
 o citizenship acquired claiming one’s parents citizenship status
❖ However, jus soli could not apply to children born from diplomats
and refugees live in a host State
❖ jus soli could not apply to children born from diplomats because
of two special principles ( international diplomatic immunities )
✓ extraterritoriality and inviolability principles
ii. Citizenship by Naturalization/Law
▪ It is legal process by which foreigners become citizens of another country
▪ common sub-principles of acquiring citizenship
o Political case (secession, merger and subjugation)
a) particular territory is merged to or subjugated by another
country, people domiciled in that territory would acquire a new
citizenship
b) in cases of secession option may be given to individuals to
choose either country’s citizenship
o grant on application
o marriage
o legitimatization/adoption
o reintegration/restoration
4.7.3.2. The Modes of Acquiring Ethiopian Citizenship

40
 • in 1930 Ethiopia adopted a legal document named as “Ethiopian Nationality
Law”
✓ replaced by another legal document called “Ethiopian Nationality
Proclamation NO. 378/2003” which was adopted in 2003 by the House
of People’s Representatives
• It affirmed that a person can acquire Ethiopian citizenship either by birth or
naturalization
1. Acquisition by Descent
o Article 3 of the 2003 nationality proclamation ascribed two principles
under the acquisition of Ethiopian citizenship by decent
➢ Any person shall be an Ethiopian national by descent where both
or either of his/her parent is Ethiopian
➢ An infant who is found abandoned in Ethiopia shall, unless proved
to have a foreign nationality, shall acquire Ethiopian nationality
❖ any person can’t acquire Ethiopian citizenship through the
principle of Jus Soli (law of soil)
2. Grant on Application (registration)
o aliens can get Ethiopian citizenship. Under naturalization, there are
various ways of acquiring Ethiopian citizenship
a) Grant on Application (registration) | Article 5 of the 2003

41
 • Ethiopia, do not simply grant citizenship status to those who
apply unless they fulfill certain requirements:
✓ reach the age of majority, 18 years
✓ lived in Ethiopia for a total of at least four years
✓ sufficient and lawful source of income
✓ able to communicate any of indigenous languages
✓ has a good character
✓ has not recorded criminal conviction
✓ has been released from his/her previous nationality or
the possibility of obtaining such a release
✓ takes the oath of allegiance indicated in Article 12
b) Cases of Marriage | Article 6
• alien who is married to an Ethiopian citizen have the
possibility of acquiring Ethiopian citizenship
• Preconditions:
✓ marriage shall be thru in accordance with the laws of
Ethiopia or the State where the marriage is contracted
✓ marriage shall lapse at least for two years
✓ the alien have to live in Ethiopian for at least one year
preceding the submission of the application

42
 ✓ alien have to reach the age of majority, morally good
person & lastly take the oath of allegiance
c) Cases of Adoption (Legitimating) | Article 7
• child adopted by and grown under the caretaker of
Ethiopian citizen has the right to acquire Ethiopian
citizenship
✓ But adopted child has not attained the age of majority
✓ lives in Ethiopia together with his/her adopting parent
✓ has been released from his/her previous nationality, or
he/she is a stateless person
✓ If one of his/her adopting parents is a foreigner, in
writing, such a parent has to express his/her
agreement that his/her adopted child gain Ethiopian
nationality
d) Citizenship by Special Cases | Article 8
• alien who has made an outstanding contribution in the
interest of Ethiopia may be conferred with Ethiopian
nationality by law without undergoing the pre-conditions
stated in Article 5
e) Re-Admission to Ethiopian Nationality | Article 22
(Reintegration/Restoration)
43
 • person who has lost Ethiopian citizenship status may get
back Ethiopian nationality
Examining and Deciding upon an Application to acquire Ethiopian Citizenship
▪ An application shall be submitted to the Security, Immigration and Refugee Affairs
Authority
▪ Then, the application shall be examined by the Nationality Affairs Committee, which
comprises five members
o representative of the Security, Immigration and Refugee Affairs Authority
(chairperson)
o representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (member)
o representative of the Ministry of Justice (member)
o representative of the Federal Police Commission (member)
o representative of the Authority (member and secretary)
▪ If the committee’s recommendation got approval of the Authority, the applicant shall
take the oath of allegiance
4.7.3.3. Dual Citizenship
▪ condition of being a citizen of two nations
▪ Duality/multiplicity arises because of the clash among the Jus Soli, Jus
Sanguini and naturalization
▪ Example:
✓ baby born to a French family visiting the United States would acquire
U.S. citizenship by Jus Soli and French citizenship by Jus Sanguinis

44
 ✓ child born from a mother and father of two different countries could
acquire dual citizenship through decent
▪ On the other hand
✓ State may allow its naturalized citizens to keep their original citizenship
✓ State may refuse its citizen to revoke his/her citizenship for various
reasons which are cause for dual/multiple citizenship
▪ Ethiopia prohibits its citizens to have dual citizenship, Article 20(1) of
the 2003
4.7.4. Ways of Loosing Citizenship
▪ Citizenship can be lost when a State provides for lapse or withdrawal of
citizenship under certain conditions, or when a citizen voluntary renounces it
▪ denationalization grounds into three categories
o allegiance - lack of allegiance, active disloyalty (for example, treason)
o punishment - country may seek to deny such benefits to people it
believes are unworthy of enjoying them
o public order
▪ commonly discussed ways of losing citizenship are
1. Deprivation
✓ involuntary loss of citizenship which arises while government
authorities or court take a decision to nullify an individual’s
citizenship
45
 ✓ for reasons of uncovering national secrets, non-compliance with
citizenship duties (duty of loyalty), loss of genuine link with his/her ,
becoming naturalized in another country etc
❖ Article 17, the 2003 Ethiopian nationality proclamation
prohibits the possibility of losing Ethiopian nationality
through deprivation
2. Lapse/expiration
✓ Person loses his/her citizenship because of his/her permanent
residence or long term residence abroad beyond the number of
years permitted by the country in question
✓ Example: Indian, 7 years limit
❖ is not applicable to Ethiopia
3. Renunciation
✓ voluntary way of losing citizenship
✓ An Ethiopian national has the full right to renounce his/her
Ethiopian nationality if he/she wishes
✓ indelible allegiance - the person who has renounced a country’s
nationality may not be actually released from that status until he/she
has discharged his/her obligations towards that particular State or
accused of a crime
4. Substitution
46
 ✓ when the original citizenship is substituted by another state, where it
is acquired through naturalization
✓ when a particular territory is annexed by another state; the
inhabitants’ citizenship within the annexed territory will be replaced
by the citizenship of the subjugator
❖ Ethiopian citizen can lose his/her Ethiopian nationality
through renunciation and upon acquisition of other
country’s nationality
4.7.4.1. Statelessness
▪ the condition of having citizenship of any country and with no government
from which to ask protection
▪ Statelessness almost always results when state failure leads people to from
their home country
▪ Individuals could also become stateless persons because of deprivation
and when renouncing their citizenship without gaining nationality in
another State
▪ Some people become stateless as a result of government action

47
Moral and Civics Chapter 5

More Quick Notes, Telegram: @campus_handout / https://t.me/campus_handout

Chapter Five: Constitution, Democracy and Human Rights

5.1 Chapter Introduction
5.2 Chapter Objectives
5.3 Constitution and Constitutionalism
5.3.1 Conceptualizing Constitution
▪ The word ‘constitution’ is used mainly in many senses
✓ In a political sense, it signifies the constitution of the state
✓ the term has attained a normative connotation and has
become another term for a ‘democratic political order
▪ Constitution is figuratively defined as
o the fundamental or basic law of a state which sets out the
structure of the state
o lists the rights of citizens alongside the limits on the power
exercise of a government
▪ It is a blue print placed on top the hierarchy of laws on
constitutional governments
▪ It is collection of principles according to which the powers of
the government, the rights of the governed, and the relation
between the two are adjusted

1
 ▪ Constitution is the mothers of all laws; all other ordinary laws
are derived from and subjected to this blue print
▪ constitution is supreme law of a land, any other law
contradicted with the provisions of the constitution becomes
void or invalid
5.3.2. Peculiar Features of Constitution
- constitutional documents and traditions take the general form
of a contract or an agreement between the ruled and the rulers
✓ Limitations on the rulers are exacted by the ruled in
exchange for allowing the rulers to preserve some
elements of their right to govern and for preserving the
stability of the governing system itself
distinctive features of a constitution
➢ Generality
• provides the general principle of a state and carry on
foundation and sets out general framework of the law and
the government
• constitutional law announces principles while other laws
apply or implement what the constitution announce their
respective spheres of fields
• other laws provide the details BUT constitution is always
the most general in the sense, short and brief
• The generality is very important because it give the
constitution a feature of elasticity through interpretation
thereby to accommodate various questions

2
 ➢ Permanency
• It is made for undefined period of time; serve for a long lap of
ages
• purposely made to be stable and permanent
✓ other laws are tentative, occasional and in the nature
of temporary existence
➢ Supremacy
• taking precedence over all others, and defining how all
the others should be made
• It is original because it is directly made by the people as
the direct expression of the will of the people
✓ other laws are secondary or derivate being
commands of representatives of the sovereign
➢ Codified document
• written down; often in a single document that presents the
constitution in a systematic manner
• constitutions are not intended to be perfect is evidenced
by expressly stated processes for revising or amending
them
➢ Allocation of powers
• It outline the proper relations between institutions and
offices of the state, and between government and citizens
• most crucial part because it allocates powers and
functions to government

3
5.3.3 Major Purposes and Functions of Constitution
Serves as a framework for Government
✓ It is a plan for organizing the operation of government
which in turn effectively guides the functions and powers
of bodies of government
Limits the Powers of Government
✓ In a constitutionally limited government, officials are
always abided by the constitution
✓ there is no decision or action that will be undertaken
arbitrarily and spontaneously rather
• every decision, act, or behavior is entertained
according to rules and laws that originate from the
constitution
✓ A constitutional Government is neither too powerful nor
too weak
• constitutions shall grant Governments enough
powers to effectively and consistently undertake
their functions and responsibilities
• But at the same time must put limits on their powers
to make sure that they are not in a position to
endanger the rights and freedoms of citizens
Protects individual and collective rights of citizens
Serves as the Supreme (Highest) Law of a Country
✓ Constitution is the source of and supreme over all laws
in a country
4
 ✓ No specific law will be valid if it contradicts the
constitution
✓ constitution of state is referred to as “the law behind
other laws or “the Mother of all laws” of a country
Provides Government legitimacy/stability
✓ provide mechanisms through which any potential
conflicts can be adjudicated and resolved
✓ It provide the vital function of introducing a measure of
stability, order, and predictability of government
o It gives governments a legitimate/legal right to rule
or govern and by doing so it serves as the weapon
for legitimizing regimes
It is Blue Prints for establishing Values and Goals
✓ fundamental aims (objectives) and principles are
described or accomplished explicitly in preambles to
constitutional documents, which often function as
statements of national ideals and values
• Example: preamble of the FDRE Constitution
5.3.4. Classification of Constitutions
▪ Constitutions are classified into different categories using
different criteria
A.Constitution based on form
✓ in view of the breadth of written provisions; based on
form/appearance constitutions
➢ Written Constitution
• is one whose provisions are written in detail
5
 • embodied in a single formal written instrument or
instruments
• written constitution is a formal document in a
codified form
- Example, India, Kenya, Ethiopia, USA,
Germany, Brazil
Merits of Written Constitution
✓ easily accessible to citizens that - enable them to
monitor the behavior of their government
✓ Citizens can easily learn about their rights and
duties
✓ full of clarity and definiteness because the
provisions are written in detail
✓ has the quality of stability
Demerits of written constitution
✓ It creates a situation of rigidity - leads to the
development of a conservative attitude
✓ It becomes difficult to change it easily quickly as per
the requirements of time - possibilities of mass
upheaval are increased
✓ becomes a play thing in the hands of the lawyers
and the courts - Different interpretations come up
from time to time that unsettle the judicial thought of
the country
✓ not easily adapted to a new situation or changing
circumstances. It needs be continuously amended
to be adapted to a new situation
➢ Unwritten Constitution
• fundamental principles and powers of the
government are not written down in any single
document
• written provisions are very brief and most of the
6
 rules of the constitution exist in the form of usages
and customs
- Example: British constitution
Merits of Unwritten Constitution
✓ has the quality of elasticity and adaptability
✓ so dynamic that it prevents the chances of popular
uprisings
✓ can absorb and also recover from shocks that may
destroy a written constitution
Demerits of Unwritten Constitution
✓ not easily accessible to the public to determine
which aspects of the constitution are violated and
when it is violated
✓ difficult to create awareness through education
✓ It leads to situations of instability - always in a state
of flux as per the emotions, passions and fancies of
the people.
✓ It leads to the state of confusion
✓ It certainly does not suit a democracy where people
are always conscious and suspicious of
constitutional provisions - may be suitable to a
monarchical or aristocratic system
B.Constitution based on complexity of amending process
➢ Rigid Constitution
• the process of amendment is difficult
• special procedure is followed to make a change in
any rule of the constitution
- A constitutional amendment bill must be
passed by the parliament by special majority
• A more difficult procedure of constitutional
amendment is the one which requires a national
referendum
7
 - Referendum - the process of direct voting by
citizens to support or rejects at constitutional
amendment or other major national issues
• does not adapt itself to changing circumstances
immediately and quickly
- Example: USA, Australia, Denmark and
Switzerland
➢ Flexible Constitution
• simple amendment procedure and there is as such
no special required procedure for amending a
constitution
- absolute majority (two thirds support) in the
parliament
• adapts easily and immediately to changing
circumstances
- Example: Constitutions of United Kingdom and
New Zealand
C. Constitution based on degree of practice
✓ On the basis of the degree to which constitution of state
observed in practice
➢ Effective Constitution
• government/citizens practices correspond to the
provisions of the constitution
• requires not merely the existence of constitutional
rules and laws but also the capacity of those rules
and laws to constrain or limit government behavior
and activities, and establish Constitutionalism
➢ Nominal constitution
• constitution accurately describes
government’/citizens’ limits yet in practice either or
both fail to behave accordingly
• constitution only remains to have paper value or
8
 when there is absence of constitutionalism
• a nominal Constitution is not observed in practice
but in form
D. Based on the kind of state structure
✓ based on the kind of state structure made by the
constitution
➢ Federal Constitution
• distributes power among the different units of a
state administration
• Some constitutions purely classify and decentralize
power between the central government and
regional/local units
• The powers divided between the federal
government and states or provinces will be clearly
set down in the constituent document
➢ Unitary Constitution
• state power is concentrated in the hands of the
central government
• central government can establish or abolish the
lower levels of government; determine their
composition, and their power and functions
- local government has no guarantee for their
existence
5.4. Constitutionalism
▪ refers to a doctrine that governments should be faithful to their
constitutions
▪ It is being subject to limitations and that citizens and
governments operate in accordance with the general rules and
laws rather than arbitrary
✓ This is because the rules and laws so provided are all that
can protect citizens’ rights from arbitrary actions and
decisions of the government
9
 ▪ constitutionalism is the belief that constitution is the best
arrangement of affairs in a society
▪ essential elements for constitutionalism are constitution and its
effective implementation
▪ It is another name for the concept of a limited and civilised
government
▪ constitutionalism does not merely require the existence of
constitution
✓ constitutionalism checks whether the act of government is
legitimate and whether officials conduct their public duties
in accordance with laws pre-determined in advance
5.5. The Constitutional Experience of Ethiopia: Pre and Post
1931
5.5.1. Traditional Constitution (Pre- 1931)
▪ Ethiopia has a very little experience with a written constitution
in spite of its long history of state formation.
✓ first written form of constitution promulgated in Ethiopia in
1931
▪ Such lack of written constitution does not necessarily implicate
the total absence of constitutional rules and principles
▪ Beginning in the 13th Century until the early 20th Century the
Ethiopian Orthodox Church was the chief legitimator of
monarchical rule
▪ documents like the Kebra Nagast, the Fatha Nagast and serate
mengest from the 13th Century until the early 20th Century
were the precursors to the formal written Ethiopian national
constitutions of the modern era
Fetha Negest – (The Law of Kings)
✓ a religious and secular legal provision than being a definite
constitution
✓ It was originally written in Arabic by the Coptic Egyptian
writer Abu-l Fada’il Ibn al-Assal
10
 ✓ designed by monks in the Church the same time Kebre
Negest penned
✓ It set out the laws and regulations that were used to
govern all activities of the Ethiopia society in the late
middle age
• used as the sources of constitutional, civil, and
criminal laws
✓ It was compiled from the Old Testament, the New
Testament, and the Roman law
✓ It was fundamental laws upon which the government and
the administration were based and the king vested with
absolute power
• It contains the idea of divine rights of kings with the
assumption that rules have a God given power
Kibre Negest – (The Glory of Kings)
✓ written to document for the first time the mythical origins of
the royal house
✓ written by six Tigrean clerics and completed in the early
14th Century
✓ important traditional document that even defined who
should become king in Ethiopia
• It was the principal sources of legitimacy for the kings
✓ Based on this the document determined that any king in
Ethiopia must descend from the Solomonic dynasty or
must have such blood relationship with the dynasty
Ser’ate Mengist
✓ provided certain administrative protocol and directives in
the 19th century
✓ hardly be considered to be a document of Constitutional
Law in its widest sense
✓ it is the first document known to have been used for
allocating power among the Crown, its dignitaries and the
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 Church
✓ tried to lay out a pattern of succession to power, though
the problem of primogeniture was more theoretical than
practical
5.5.2. The 1931 First Written Constitution
▪ With promulgation of first written form of constitution on July16,
1931 by Emperor Haile Selassie, the era of unwritten form of
constitution came to an end
▪ The constitution reinforced the traditional position of the
emperor as ‘Siyume Egziabiher, Niguse Negast Za Ethiopia’
which literally means: Elect of God, King of Kings of Ethiopia
✓ However, on the other marked the end of the role of the
nobility or at least the gradual reduction of their role in
local leadership, the traditional check against the power of
the king of kings, to insignificance
▪ The constitution unequivocally declared that the sole basis of
legitimate authority was the emperor, and that all titles and
appointments descended from him - Article 6
▪ both internal and external factors forced the development of
the 1931 constitution
External Factors
✓ It was was the result of the growing interaction between
Ethiopia and the external world, particularly the western
European countries
• Emperor Haile Silassie developed strong aspiration to
view Ethiopia as a modern state to the rest of the
world
✓ The emperor had to convince the world that his country was
modernizing and taking her place among the civilized states
✓ However, the 1931 constitution was failed to achieve
external goals as intended by the emperor
Internal Factors
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 ✓ It was intended to provide a legal framework for the
suppression of the powerful traditional nobilities to the
emperor
✓ The emperor has a deep interest of centralizing the state
power in the internal politics of the country
• This was effectively done by absolutist nature of the
constitution
5.5.3. The Revised Constitution of 1955
▪ Ethiopian politics were profoundly affected by World War II and
its aftermath. The emperor had been driven into exile when
beginning in 1935 the Italian Fascists occupied the country for
just over five years
✓ the Ethiopian Orthodox Church and the traditional
aristocracy were severely weakened
▪ the emperor was restored to the throne by the British in 1941
▪ the world had also been profoundly changed by the War.
Ethiopia was surrounded by African colonies which were
rapidly gaining their independence and left by the departing
colonialists with varying forms of democratic institutions. This
trend led to pressures for reform on the Imperial Crown from
younger Ethiopians
▪ There were constellations of social and political events that
urged the revision of the 1931 constitution
▪ The Revised Constitution continued to reinforce the process of
centralization
▪ The Constitution spent one chapter settling the issue of
succession on the rule of male primogeniture.
▪ Detailed provisions vested in the Emperor wide powers over
the military, foreign affairs, local administration and so forth
✓ He was both the head of state and of the government and
he continued to oversee the judiciary through his Chilot
(Crown Court)
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 ▪ it also contained an elaborate regime of civil and political rights
for the subjects. In theory, the Constitution was the supreme
law of the land governing even the Emperor
▪ It was revised because of internal and external factors mainly
to cope up with the social and political dynamics of the then
period, global politics, and Ethio-Eritrean federation
▪ revised version comes with a slight modification in the structure
of the system of governance, limiting the power of the emperor
to a certain extent and a relatively better recognition of rights
and freedoms
▪ The federation of Eritrea with Ethiopia led to the addition of two
new documents in to the Ethiopia legal system
✓ the federal act and the Eritrean constitution
✓ Both documents were far modern and better than the
existing traditional 1931 constitution of the imperial
government. Thus, the emperor was forced to revise the
1931 Constitution
5.5.4. The 1987 Constitution of People’s Democratic Republic
Ethiopia (PDRE)
▪ Immediately after came to power, the Dergue setup the
Provisional Military Administrative Council (PMAC) type of
temporary government
▪ The PMAC presented itself for elections through a new party-
the Workers’ Party of Ethiopia. The party became the vanguard
communist party
▪ After coming to power the Dergue issued a series of decrees
and proclamations that was used as legal rules until the
adoption of 1987 constitution
▪ However, these, decrees and proclamations cannot be given a
constitutional status because it does not touch basic
constitutional issues
✓ the time from 1974-1987 was a period vacuum in Ethiopia
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 of constitutional
▪ The People’s Democratic Republic Ethiopia constitution (1987)
was different from the 1931 and the 1955 imperial constitutions
in that constitution
✓ State and religion were separated – secularism
✓ State the political power and sovereignty were declared to
be the preserve of the working people of Ethiopia
✓ contains provisions on democratic and human rights
✓ recognized the different cultural identities and the equality
of Nation and Nationalities
✓ Introduced a party system by giving recognition to the
workers party of Ethiopia
• leading to a transition from a none party system to a
single party system
✓ aimed at the principles of Marxist and Leninist ideology
✓ Aimed at giving power to the peoples so that they
exercise through referendum, local and national assembly
▪ Practically, however, the 1987 constitution was not different
from the 1931 and 1955 constitutions
5.5.5. The 1995 (FDRE) Constitution
▪ The FDRE constitution has a wider coverage of both human
and democratic rights. one third (approximately 33 articles) is
devoted to the discussion of rights
Features
✓ introduction of a federal form of governance
✓ assignment of the competence of determining
constitutionality to the second chamber of the parliament
✓ embod many of the core egalitarian principles including the
principle of self- determination of collectivities, rule of law,
democracy e.t.c
▪ In the second chapter, the Constitution gives recognition to five
fundamental principles
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 ✓ principles of popular sovereignty (art. 8)
✓ constitutionalism and constitutional supremacy (art. 9)
✓ sanctity of human rights (art. 10)
✓ secularism (art. 11)
✓ accountability and transparency of government (Art.12)
5.6. Democracy and Democratization
5.6.1. Defining Democracy

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