Governmental Power: Quality or Identity? Comment on Alon Harel's Argument against Outsourcing Violence

Re'em Segev

doi:10.2202/1938-2545.1064

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Governmental Power: Quality or Identity? Comment on Alon Harel's Argument against Outsourcing Violence

Re'em Segev

Published/Copyright: October 1, 2011

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From the journal Law & Ethics of Human Rights Volume 5 Issue 2

What is the appropriate division of power between public officials and private individuals? The straightforward answer to this question, it seems, is that an official should have a power if she employs it (morally) better compared to a private individual. However, Alon Harel argues that this answer is misguided, or at least partially, since there are some decisions—mainly concerning the employment of violence—that should be made and implemented only by public officials regardless of the (relative) moral quality of the decision or action. In this comment I consider and criticize this argument.

Keywords: outsourcing violence; comment; Alon Harel; inherently governmental functions; societal decisions; private entities

Published Online: 2011-10-1

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https://doi.org/10.2202/1938-2545.1064

Keywords for this article

outsourcing violence; comment; Alon Harel; inherently governmental functions; societal decisions; private entities