Public Moralities, Citizen Voices, and Disparate Fears

Abstract

This article examines the contours of “the public’s morality(ies)”, either as an aggregate of individuals’ public hopes and fears or (in the plural) as particular mixes of hopes and fears stemming from individual (or coalitional) moral convictions. Our theoretical understanding of one aggregate “public morality” relies upon Derek Edyvane’s presentation of a civic virtue premised upon an austerity whereby citizens value a collective sense of protection as highly as the realization of their individual public aspirations. We scrutinize Edyvane’s theoretical construct in reference to a collection of citizen letters responding to Gerald Ford’s 1974 pardon of Richard Nixon made available by the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library. These letters illustrate a conceptual typology of public morality that reflects various combinations of the public hopes and fears Edyvane delineates; this typology accommodates most of the available letters. Psychological studies pertaining to prosocial behavior, individual moral convictions, and conspiracy beliefs are reviewed to understand sectarian fears that animate current political discourse. In this regard, we offer examples of political utterances appearing to fall outside Edyvane’s treatment of public fears. A final discussion considers how citizen fears arising from disparate moral convictions affect administrative decision-making. It also directs attention to behavioral public administration that offers a micro-level perspective on individual behavior that impacts governance.

Keywords:

• Public morality(ies); public-regarding fears
• sectarian fears; behavioral PA

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1 In 2014 the Gerald R. Ford Museum displayed correspondence directed to President Ford in the immediate wake of the Nixon pardon in 1974. The authors requested access to available correspondence, whether included in this display or otherwise. The Museum subsequently forwarded our request to the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library An archives specialist at the Library provided the authors with a digital link (no longer operative) to the Philip Buchen files that contained correspondence sent to the White House during the Ford presidency. Letters pertinent to the Nixon pardon were taken from Box 32 of that file. Of the 71 letters provided, 55 support the Table 1 typology as they convey discernably-developed arguments either in favor of or in opposition to Ford’s pardon of Nixon. The remaining 16 letters—while briefly referencing the pardon—fall into three categories: those that (1) forwarded published commentary (e.g., newspaper clips) deemed pertinent to the pardon issue, (2) requested pardon-related documents or information (e.g., for academic purposes), and (3) petitioned the President for personal or business-related considerations.

2 To be more specific, first we code letters as expressing hope if they are best described as imploring President Ford to: “Pursue the common good; ignore self-interest”; or fear if they are best described as imploring Ford to “Avert disaster/breakdown/disintegration; this isn’t about ‘the common good.’” Second, we code letters as aspirational if they are best described as imploring Ford to “Realize our ideals—make us proud”; or preventive if they implore Ford to “Prevent evil—don’t give in to the pressure.” Thus, for example, we code the first letter listed below as Hope-Aspiration (Table 1, cell 1) because it is best described as imploring Ford to “pursue the common good; ignore self interest” and to “Realize our ideals—make us proud.” Each letter was coded by one of the authors, with a graduate assistant, and then final coding decisions were made by the other author. Each letter was coded once, to capture its contents as a whole. In cases of disagreement, the authors discussed their coding decisions to arrive at a final classification. The letters excerpted below provide readers with specific examples of correspondence classified within each cell of our typology from Table 1. The complete set of correspondence, along with their typological classifications, is available upon request from the authors.

3 Reference here to egoism is derived from psychological studies of prosocial motivation, apart from Edyvane’s treatment of civic virtue. For example, see Batson & Shaw, 1991, pp. 100–110).

4 Bloom and Moskalenko connect the individual with coalitions arguing that the latter offers a “cultural worldview” that provides “communal fictions” that validate individual experiences and emotions (2021, pp. 81–84).