Abstract
The chapter seeks to establish the role of practical reason in good governance, the aim of which is to bring about a better society where this could be understood as a more fair and just society than what we find today. Stating the principles of good governance, it seeks to show that justice is the normative value of good governance and that although the idea of an ideally just society is probably an ‘utopia’, good governance does help in reducing the injustices that abound in society. In this context, the chapter delineates the role of public practical reasoning that underlies good governance. A distinction is outlined between reason, reasoning and reasonableness with the claim that what public policy should aim at is ‘being reasonable’ and not necessarily being the ‘most rational policy’ to hold. In that respect, it emphasizes the seven parameters of Social Choice Theory as admitted by Amartya Sen. The chapter presents an account of the dominant and alternative ethical frameworks wherein public policy needs to be framed and evaluated. It closely examines the steps involved in the framing of public policy while showing how normative ethics is involved at each step. It concludes by stating the limits of the role of ethics in policy formation.
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Notes
- 1.
This has been discussed at some length in Chap. 7.
- 2.
Detailed discussion of Rawls’ theory of justice is taken up in Chap. 5.
- 3.
In August 2017, the Supreme Court of India declared Triple Talaq unconstitutional that struck down the age-old practice under which a Muslim man could divorce his wife by uttering the word “talaq” thrice. In January 2020, the Union Cabinet of the Government of India amended the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, 1971(MTP) allowing women to seek abortion as part of reproductive rights and gender justice. The amendment has raised the upper limit of MTP from 20 to 24 weeks for women. Failure of contraception is also acknowledged and MTP is now available to “any woman or her partner” replacing the old provision for “only married woman or her husband”. The Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill of 2019 places a ban on commercial surrogacy but allows altruistic surrogacy for infertile Indian couples. Women need to be between the ages of 25 and 35 and can only be surrogates once.
- 4.
Chapter 3 that takes up the analysis of three major case studies illustrates this point well.
- 5.
Refer to the Introduction of this book for details.
- 6.
Refer to the Introduction to this book for a detailed description of Constructive EPP.
- 7.
An instance of this is when, in the context of COVID management and vaccination policies adopted by the Indian government, the Supreme Court of India intervened and said “Courts cannot be silent spectators when constitutional rights of citizens are infringed by executive policies”, https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/cant-be-silent-spectators-when-govt-policy-violates-citizens-rights-supreme-court/articleshow/83191777.cms.
- 8.
- 9.
“Instrumentally good “is used for an act, which is considered to be good because it brings about desired, expected consequences enhancing the utility of the agent or those affected by the act. An act that is considered good because of the right intention/motives that produce the action counts as “Intrinsically good” even if it does not bring about utility for the agent or others. Sometimes, the instrumentally good act is not the intrinsically good act and vice versa. For example, intentionally giving a good grade on a bad-term paper to curry favor with students may bring about good consequences (make the student happy, increase popularity of the teacher), but it is not the right thing to do.
- 10.
A good example of such a public outreach program is the “Didi ke bolo” and “Duare Sarkar” scheme of the West Bengal Government in India. For details of the case refer to Chap. 7 in the book.
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Motilal, S., Maitra, K., Prajapati, P. (2021). The Role of Public Practical Reasoning in Good Governance. In: The Ethics of Governance. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-4043-8_2
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