4 - Justifying Leadership

Summary

INTRODUCTION

When are leaders justified in making exceptions of themselves? Under what conditions, that is, is it permissible for them to deviate from moral requirements that apply to the rest of us? Initially at least, it might seem that leaders can never be justified in making such exceptions. First, to deviate from what morality requires is to do what is morally wrong. In other words, it is to fail to engage in behavior supported not only by prima facie moral reasons but also by conclusive moral reasons against the deviation. Second, justification implies that the actor does no wrong by engaging in the behavior in question. That is to say, if a leader's behavior is justified, then it is a morally right thing to do in the circumstances, perhaps among other perfectly permissible alternatives. It may also be the right thing to do, in which case his behavior is required in addition to being permissible. It would seem, then, that the claim that a leader's behavior is justified minimally requires that he do no wrong when he engages in it. But if justified behavior is permissible in just this sense, and deviations from the requirements of morality are always morally wrong, then leaders are never justified in making exceptions of themselves. Plainly stated, it cannot be right for them to do what is wrong.