Maria Paola Ferretti | Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz (original) (raw)

Books by Maria Paola Ferretti

SOCIAL THEORY AND PRACTICE, 2023

This article argues that citizens are responsible for the way they participate in political commu... more This article argues that citizens are responsible for the way they participate in political communication and debate, including for the quality of the pieces of information they post or disseminate on social media. This view contrasts with approaches that prioritise institutional responsibility in combating misleading information. Instead, in the article's perspective, public and private institutional interventions are justified only when they aim at sustaining citizens in upholding their epistemic duties and contribute to an environment that facilitates responsible communicative exchanges.

Social Philosophy and Policy, 2020

A number of scholars have recently drawn attention to institutional corruption. Some of them defe... more A number of scholars have recently drawn attention to institutional corruption. Some of them defend a discontinuity thesis according to which an institution may be corrupted even if its members are not. In this paper I defend instead a continuity thesis and argue that institutional corruption can be always traced back to the corrupt behaviour of some individual agents. I explain that there are certain instances of corrupt behaviour that spread their effects and tip in a way that subvert (and not simply violate) the public rules that govern an institution. This occurs, I argue, following either summative, morphological or systemic modalities. This taxonomy of institutional corruption is useful to explain different ways of attributing collective responsibility, and to understand what the appropriate answers to institutional corruption may be, both in a backward-looking and in a forward-looking perspective.

Oxford University Press, 2021

This book makes political corruption an object of public ethics by demonstrating how it is an int... more This book makes political corruption an object of public ethics by demonstrating how it is an internal enemy-a Trojan horse-of public institutions. To understand political corruption, Emanuela Ceva and Maria Paola Ferretti argue, we must adopt an internal point of view and look at how officeholders' interrelated conduct may fail the functioning of their institution because of their

Public debates in our societies are marked by appeals to tradition, religion and even manipulativ... more Public debates in our societies are marked by appeals to tradition, religion and even manipulative uses of ‘post-truth’. This book argues that the antidote to such tendencies can only be public reasoning. We can find the resources to build what I call the public perspective if we make two commitments: to respect people as free autonomous agents and to endorse a shared ethics of beliefs. An ethics of belief is a set of epistemic and moral rules that inform the beliefs that we bring to the public forum and make possible discussion and confrontation on a terrain that is adequately public. The epistemological aspects cannot be severed from the political commitments that motivate public justification in the first place. An ethics of belief shields us against two temptations: on the one hand, to abandon reason and claim that all sorts of beliefs and opinion should weigh into public reasoning; or, on the other, to appeal to objective reasons only, independently of whether people recognise them as such or not.

Articles by Maria Paola Ferretti

Sellers, M., Kirste, S. (eds) Encyclopedia of the Philosophy of Law and Social Philosophy. Springer, Dordrecht. , 2023

The Journal of Ethics, 2023

One topic of growing interest in the debate on intergenerational justice is the duty to respect t... more One topic of growing interest in the debate on intergenerational justice is the duty to respect the freedom of future generations. One consideration in favor of such a duty is that the decisions of present generations will affect the range of decisions that will be available to future people. As a consequence, future generations' freedom to direct their lives may be importantly restricted such that present generations can be seen as taking future people's lives into their hands and disempowering them. This article defends the idea that present generations have an obligation to sustain a certain threshold of freedom for members of present and future generations alike. It argues that we should regard sustainability policies as a way to redistribute freedom across members of different generations. It starts by explaining the centrality of social freedom to the way we conceive of moral persons, then explains how freedom can be understood as an object of redistribution. It then argues that by imposing some risks-such as that of resource depletion or destruction of the ecosystem-on future generations, present generations push future generations' freedom below an acceptable threshold. The paper concludes with examples of how this focus on freedom can offer guidance in selecting and justifying sustainability policies-for example, measures for conserving biodiverse environments-even when it is not clear how they will directly contribute to the well-being of future persons.

Ethics &Global Politics, 2021

Scholars and international organizations engaged in institutional reconstruction converge in reco... more Scholars and international organizations engaged in institutional reconstruction converge in recognizing political corruption as a cause or a consequence of conflicts. Anticorruption is thus generally considered a centerpiece of institutional reconstruction programs. A common approach to anticorruption within this context aims primarily to counter the negative political, social, and economic effects of political corruption, or implement legal anticorruption standards and punitive measures. We offer a normative critical discussion of this approach particularly when it is initiated and sustained by external entities. We recast the focus from an outward to an inward perspective on institutional action and failure centered on the institutional interactions between officeholders. In so doing, we offer the normative tools to reconceptualize anticorruption in terms of an institutional ethics of "office accountability" that draws on an institution's internal resources of self-correction as per the officeholders' interrelated work.

Virtues, Democracy, and Online Media: Ethical and Epistemic Issues , 2021

This essay explores aspects of the so called ‘post truth’ politics that have to do with post-fact... more This essay explores aspects of the so called ‘post truth’ politics that have to do with post-factualism. It argues that citizens have a duty to resist those post-factual attitudes that open the way to post truth politics. This duty derives from their status as citizens who are accountable to themselves and to their fellow citizens for the way they conduct their communal life. Among other things, citizens depend on one another for gaining knowledge and factual beliefs that inform the rules of their political society. Deceptive or manipulative assertions fail to treat the others with the respect that is due to free and equal citizens and this explains the wrong of postfactual attitudes. The proposal is that citizens, in their communicative interactions should be guided by an ethics of belief founded on an ‘alethic obligation’. This idea, inspired by John Locke, presupposes that citizens apply specific truth conducive criteria in the formation of their beliefs. The essay argues that such obligation holds for all citizens, despite the difficulty they may encounter in a context in which sources of information are mainly on the internet and public debate occurs mainly via online interactions. In times of social media, acting as a responsible citizen not only demands intellectual engagement and critical alertness, but also requires technological and social media literacy.

Maria Paola Ferretti (maria.ferretti@normativeorders.net) Responsibility and fake news in the tim... more Maria Paola Ferretti (maria.ferretti@normativeorders.net) Responsibility and fake news in the time of social media An edited version is available at: https://medium.com/colloquium/responsibility-and-fake-news-in-the-time-of-social-media-340f555c1d0e In 2017, Donald Trump announced that the US would withdraw unilaterally from the Paris agreement on combatting global climate change. To many observers this appeared yet another example of post-truth politics, or the idea that emotions and personal beliefs are more powerful in the formation of public opinion than factual evidence, especially when offered by established experts. Far too often, prominent political personalities publicly deny the relevance of evidence largely accepted by the scientific community and disregard the relevance of logic and good argument as a justification of public rules and decisions. In so doing they contribute to a growing distrust in experts among the public and suggest that, given the plural and sometimes conflicting versions of what the relevant facts are, we should abandon an aspiration to truth. In the absence of trustworthy epistemic authorities, only actual preferences and beliefs should count in the democratic discourse. Given that discerning among genuine and fake news and identifying reliable sources of information is increasingly difficult, is it better to renounce the idea of truth entirely? I contend that we should not. In the history of Western political thought there is a tradition originating in the work of philosopher and physician John Locke, according to which citizens in a liberal society have a duty to do their best to hold beliefs that are true or very likely to be true. This duty has sometimes been called the " alethic obligation ". Only by applying an ethics of belief informed by alethic obligation can we honor our fellow citizens as morally free and autonomous, rather than manipulating them and offering them our opinion as a way to make them work for our own interests and preferences. I argue that if we accept our alethic obligation, then our responsibilities as believers increase, rather than diminish, as the prophets of the post-truth would suggest.

The corruption of public officials and institutions is generally regarded as wrong. But in what e... more The corruption of public officials and institutions is generally regarded as wrong. But in what exactly does this form of corruption consist and what kind of wrong does it imply? This article aims to take stock of the current philosophical discussion of the different senses in which political corruption is generally wrong, beyond the specific negative legal, economic, and social costs it may happen to have in specific circumstances. Political corruption is usually presented as a pathology of the public order. Therefore, the senses in which political corruption has been presented as wrong have varied depending on the normative theory of the public order that is presupposed. In this article, we offer a critical presentation of two major interpretations of the wrongfulness of political corruption that draw respectively on a neo-republican and a liberal account of the public order. Finally, we show how the analytical distinction between these approaches has important normative implications for the identification of relevant cases of political corruption.

Various authors hold that what is wrong with risk imposition is that being at risk diminishes the... more Various authors hold that what is wrong with risk imposition is that being at risk diminishes the opportunities available to an agent. Arguably, even when risk does not result in material or psychological damages, it still represents a setback in terms of some legitimate interests. However, it remains to be specified what those interests are. This paper argues that risk imposition represents a diminishment of overall freedom. Freedom will be characterized in empirical terms, as the range of unimpeded actions available to an agent. After briefly outlining the main characteristics of overall freedom as defended by Hillel Steiner and Ian Carter, the paper shows that this notion is able to capture many of our intuitions about when and how risk imposition disadvantages an agent, without reference to welfare indicators. The paper argues that if this non-welfarist perspective can be defended, then it would be easier to approach a number of applied questions about risk, including the questions of when risk imposition is permissible or legitimate, in which ways risk can be an object of distributive justice, and how one can be compensated for being subject to a risk.

There are certain kinds of risk for which governments, rather than individual actors, are increas... more There are certain kinds of risk for which governments, rather than individual actors, are increasingly held responsible. This article discusses how regulatory institutions can ensure an equitable distribution of risk between various groups such as rich and poor, and present and future generations. It focuses on cases of risk associated with technological and biotechnological innovation. After discussing various possibilities and difficulties of distribution, this article proposes a non-welfarist understanding of risk as a burden of cooperation.

Recent debates in science and technology studies, as well as more practical approaches to science... more Recent debates in science and technology studies, as well as more practical approaches to science policy both at national and European level, have stressed the relevance of citizen participation in the field of science. This paper investigates what some of the key actors in this debate, civil society organisations, expect from participation. The paper presents two case studies of civil society participation in the field of novel biotechnologies in Germany and in Spain. Despite the differences between the experiences of participation in these two countries, our study shows that current institutional approaches, which are inspired by the 'democratisation of expertise' perspective and set up essentially at the 'downstream' level, seem less promising than 'upstream' models of participation, which, in contrast, appear more meaningful from a 'co-production of science' framing.

Toleration classically denotes a relation between two agents that is characterised by three compo... more Toleration classically denotes a relation between two agents that is characterised by three components: objection, power, and acceptance overriding the objection. Against recent claims that classical toleration is not applicable in liberal democracies and that toleration must therefore either be understood purely attitudinally or purely politically, we argue that the components of classical toleration are crucial elements of contemporary cases of minority accommodation. The concept of toleration is applicable to, and is an important element of descriptions of such cases, provided that one views them as wholes, rather than as sets of isolated relations.We explain this by showing how certain cases of toleration are multi-dimensional and how the descriptive concept of toleration might be understood intersectionally.We exemplify this by drawing on case studies of mosque controversies in Germany and Denmark. Finally, we propose that intersectionality is not only relevant to the descriptive concept of toleration but also captures an important aspect of normative theories of toleration.We illustrate this by discussing ideals of respect-based toleration, which we also apply to the case studies. bs_bs_banner Journal of Applied Philosophy

In the European Union, for the first time, lay people can participate directly in the procedure o... more In the European Union, for the first time, lay people can participate directly in the procedure of assessment of GMO (genetically modified organisms) products, an exercise normally reserved for scientists and legal experts. What makes this a unique strategy of participation is that for each single application for authorization, lay people have the opportunity to express their views. This article presents the result of the first in-depth analysis of this type of Internet participatory exercise in the first years of its implementation. It shows that, despite generally participatory technology assessment aims at deliberative consensus on technical questions, this forum is instead a way to expose the work of regulative authorities to public scrutiny and to express dissent and opposition to the European Commission policy on GMOs.

Recent debates in science and technology studies, as well as more practical approaches to science... more Recent debates in science and technology studies, as well as more practical approaches to science policy both at national and European level, have stressed the relevance of citizen participation in the field of science. This paper investigates what some of the key actors in this debate, civil society organisations (CSOs), expect from participation. The paper presents two case studies of civil society participation in the field of novel biotechnologies in Germany and in Spain. Despite the differences between the experiences of participation in these two countries, our study shows that current institutional approaches, which are inspired by the 'democratisation of expertise' perspective and set up essentially at the 'downstream' level, seem less promising than 'upstream' models of participation, which, in contrast, appear more meaningful from a 'co-production of science' framing.

SOCIAL THEORY AND PRACTICE, 2023

Social Philosophy and Policy, 2020

Oxford University Press, 2021

Sellers, M., Kirste, S. (eds) Encyclopedia of the Philosophy of Law and Social Philosophy. Springer, Dordrecht. , 2023

The Journal of Ethics, 2023

Ethics &Global Politics, 2021

Virtues, Democracy, and Online Media: Ethical and Epistemic Issues , 2021

Recent debates in science and technology studies, as well as more practical approaches to science... more Recent debates in science and technology studies, as well as more practical approaches to science policy both at national and European level, have stressed the relevance of citizen participation in the field of science. This paper investigates what some of the key actors in this debate, civil society organisations (CSOs), expect from participation. The paper presents two case studies of civil society participation in the field of novel biotechnologies in Germany and in Spain. Despite the differences between the experiences of participation in these two countries, our study shows that current institutional approaches, which are inspired by the 'democratisation of expertise' perspective and set up essentially at the 'downstream' level, seem less promising than 'upstream' models of participation, which, in contrast, appear more meaningful from a 'co-production of science' framing.

ABSTRACT In less than a decade, European food institutions have gone through a period of impor... more 1) ABSTRACT In less than a decade, European food institutions have gone through a period of important reform. This reform was intended to address new challenges posed by a succession of food safety crises, the entry into the world markets of novel foods, and general public distrust of the actions of the European Commission. This paper sketches the most salient institutional changes that have occurred in the history of the European Union (EU). It also maps the redistribution of responsibilities in the European food system. After years of harmonisation in the name of free trade, in the mid-1990s food safety and consumer protection became the

Theoria: A Journal of Social and Political Theory (forthcoming)

Agonist theorists have argued against deliberative democrats that democratic institutions should ... more Agonist theorists have argued against deliberative democrats that democratic institutions should not seek to establish a rational consensus, but rather allow political disagreements to be expressed in an adversarial form. But democratic agonism is not antagonism: some restriction of the plurality of admissible expressions is not incompatible with a legitimate public sphere. However, is it generally possible to grant this distinction between antagonism and agonism without accepting normative standards in public discourse that saliently resemble those advocated by (some) deliberative democrats? In this paper we provide an analysis of one important aspect of political communication, the use of slippery slope arguments, and show that the fact of pluralism weakens the agonists’ case for contestation as a sufficient ingredient for appropriately democratic public discourse. We illustrate that contention by identifying two specific kinds of what we call pluralism slippery slopes, i.e. mechanisms whereby pluralism reinforces the efficacy of slippery slope arguments.

Civil society participation in international and European governance is often promoted as a remed... more Civil society participation in international and European governance is often promoted as a remedy to its much-lamented democratic deficit. We argue in this paper that this claim needs refinement because civil society participation may serve two quite different purposes: It may either enhance the democratic accountability of intergovernmental organisations and regimes, or the epistemic quality of rules and decisions made within them. Comparing the EU (European Union) and World Trade Organisation (WTO) in the field of biotechnology regulation we find that many participatory procedures officially are geared towards the epistemic quality of regulatory decisions. In practice, however, these procedures provide little space for epistemic deliberation. Nevertheless, they often lead to enhanced transparency and hence improve the accountability of governance. We also find evidence confirming findings from the literature that the different roles assigned to civil society organisations as 'watchdogs' and 'deliberators' are at times hard to reconcile. Our conclusion is that we need to acknowledge potential trade-offs between the two democratising functions of civil society participation and should be careful not to exaggerate our demands on civil society organisations.

Philosophy Compass, 2017

This Guide offers some ideas concerning readings, topics, and seminar prompts for a philosophy c... more This Guide offers some ideas concerning readings, topics, and seminar prompts for a philosophy course on political corruption.

Oxford University Press eBooks, Apr 22, 2021

Contrary to current institutionalist theories of corruption, this chapter maintains that the qual... more Contrary to current institutionalist theories of corruption, this chapter maintains that the quality of institutional practices can always be traced back to the officeholders’ conduct as both individual and interrelated role occupants via their institutional roles. This is the “continuity approach” to political corruption in public institutions. Because institutional roles are structurally interrelated, political corruption can be attributed to an institution in virtue of a variety of patterns (summative, morphological, and systemic), describing the shape of the interrelatedness of the officeholders’ conduct. Political corruption thus has its source in the action of officeholders within an institution, no matter how well designed that institution may be. This internal enemy is a serious one because the officeholders’ interrelated corrupt conduct may fail an institution’s raison d’être (the normative ideals that motivate an institution’s establishment and functioning).

The Review of Politics

justice and a public ethics of accountability underpins their remedial proposals, there remain qu... more justice and a public ethics of accountability underpins their remedial proposals, there remain questions over the practical challenges of promoting an ethics of public accountability in the ever more complex socioeconomic and political environment in which we now operate.

The Journal of Ethics

Social Theory and Practice

On the basis of individual and institutional data, the study seeks to identify and analyse factor... more On the basis of individual and institutional data, the study seeks to identify and analyse factors that determine trust in the food supply and in information sources. These factors include the roles of public authorities, consumer organisations, market actors, consumers, NGOs, etc. Representative surveys have been conducted in six countries,

This book discusses political corruption and anticorruption as a matter of public ethics. It deve... more This book discusses political corruption and anticorruption as a matter of public ethics. It develops a normative account of political corruption as a relationally wrongful practice that consists in an unaccountable use of the power of office. Most current discussions of what political corruption is and why it is wrong have concentrated either on explaining and assessing it as a matter of an individual’s corrupt character and motives or as a dysfunction of institutional procedures. However, surprisingly little scholarly attention has been devoted to discussing the relation between these two dimensions of political corruption. This book fills this gap by showing how appreciating the specificity of this phenomenon and the depth and breadth of its wrongness requires understanding the way political corruption is a failure of the role-based interactions between the occupants of institutional roles. Political corruption is thus a matter of public ethics because it is a problem inherent to...

The Routledge Handbook of Ethics and Public Policy, 2018

The corruption of public officials and institutions is one of the most obvious problems that affe... more The corruption of public officials and institutions is one of the most obvious problems that affects developed and developing countries alike. Because this view is largely shared, most current studies of this phenomenon—‘political corruption’—have been dedicated either to measuring or counteracting the negative political, social, and economic effects that this form of corruption may have in society. Albeit significant and urgent, these studies have distracted the attention of commentators from a somewhat more basic analysis of the nature and wrongness of this phenomenon. This lacuna has resulted in the formulation of a multiplicity of actions that address a very heterogeneous set of issues, including such diverse phenomena as bribery, embezzlement, institutional malfunctioning, the inadequacy of political leaders, and clientelism. This situation is unsatisfactory because it muddles important distinctions between different pathologies that may affect the public order. But it matters also for the design of anti-corruption strategies that risk to either misfire or be too vague by lacking a clear target and an account of the exact kind of wrong these strategies are meant to prevent and/or correct. In our research on this topic, we have addressed this issue by offering a normative analysis of political corruption as surreptitious public action. Our account explains the distinguishing traits of political corruption and makes sense of its inherent wrongness as a contradiction of the logic of publicity that undergirds political interactions in a rights-based system. In this chapter, we draw on this research and expand it with a view to enhancing the identification of relevant instances of political corruption and the design of policies to counteract them.

Civil Society Participation in European and Global Governance, 2008

This chapter explores a potential ‘democratization of risk’ by examining the participatory strate... more This chapter explores a potential ‘democratization of risk’ by examining the participatory strategies of the European Food Safety Agency’s Panel on the Regulation of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO Panel). It examines the extent to which organized civil society and concerned citizens have the opportunity to influence decisions on the regulation of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in the European Union (EU). It considers the conditions of access and transparency that prevail in the current procedures of risk assessment and, by analyzing the documentary record of some recent cases, probes into the responsiveness of the European Food Safety Agency (EFSA) and the European Commission to people’s concerns as expressed through the institutional channels for participation.

Review of Policy Research, 2008

Res Publica, 2009

Granting differential treatment is often considered a way of placing some groups in a better posi... more Granting differential treatment is often considered a way of placing some groups in a better position in order to maintain or improve their cultural, economic, health-related or other conditions, and to address persistent inequalities. Critics of multiculturalism have pointed out the tension between protection for groups and protection for group members. The 'rule-and-exemption' approach has generally been conceived as more resistant to such criticism insofar as exemptions are not conceded to minorities or ethical and religious groups as such, but to individuals who are part of those groups. However, I show that when a government grants an exemption, it inevitably provides a definition of the relevant group in question, and the tendency is to take cultural membership as 'given' or as defined by group spokespersons. I discuss some problems related to these definitions and defend instead a definition based on shared group interests.

Global Society, 2009

ABSTRACT

Appetite, 2006

Recent surveys show that Italians have little trust in the food they eat. This seems at odds with... more Recent surveys show that Italians have little trust in the food they eat. This seems at odds with the worldwide popularity of Italian food, and the very prominent role that the agro-food sector has in the national economy and culture. This paper aims to explain this apparent contradiction by examining recent political and economic changes in the food sector. From the analysis it emerges that, facing institutional crises and food scandals, Italian politicians have left the task of reassuring consumers to the market. However, the market actors' strategy has been to prioritise the discourse of food quality, but give little weight to some other important preoccupation of consumers, such as safety. To address these concerns a more proactive role of the State would be required. An actual concern of public institutions with consumer needs, institutional efficiency, transparency and accountability emerges as a crucial factor in restoring and maintaining trust.

Appetite, 2006

In less than a decade, European food institutions have gone through a period of important reform.... more In less than a decade, European food institutions have gone through a period of important reform. This reform was intended to address new challenges posed by a succession of food safety crises, the entry into the world markets of novel foods, and general public distrust of the actions of the European Commission. This paper sketches the most salient institutional changes that have occurred in the history of the European Union (EU). It also maps the redistribution of responsibilities in the European food system. After years of harmonisation in the name of free trade, in the mid-1990s food safety and consumer protection became the 2 guiding principles of European food policy. Having described these changes, the paper suggests that a specifically European food policy style is emerging in juxtaposition with 'transatlantic' food policy.

Science and Public Policy, 2009

Politics, Philosophy & Economics, 2015

Various authors hold that what is wrong with risk imposition is that being at risk diminishes the... more Various authors hold that what is wrong with risk imposition is that being at risk diminishes the opportunities available to an agent. Arguably, even when risk does not result in material or psychological damages, it still represents a setback in terms of some legitimate interests. However, it remains to be specified what those interests are. This article argues that risk imposition represents a diminishment of overall freedom. Freedom will be characterized in empirical terms, as the range of unimpeded actions available to an agent. After briefly outlining the main characteristics of overall freedom as defended by Hillel Steiner and Ian Carter, the article shows that this notion is able to capture many of our intuitions about when and how risk imposition disadvantages an agent, without reference to welfare indicators. The article argues that if this non-welfarist perspective can be defended, then it would be easier to approach a number of applied questions about risk, including the ...

Journal of Applied Philosophy

ABSTRACT

In the European Union, the institutional reform that risk regulation system has undergone in the ... more In the European Union, the institutional reform that risk regulation system has undergone in the last decade has emphasised the need for fostering public participation and stakeholder involvement in decision making processes. Citizen scrutiny, in theory, ought to bring about better governance, and greater participation in public policy decisions is usually regarded as a symptom of a healthy democracy. By presenting evidence from two case studies in the field of biotechnology regulation, this paper aims to prove that taking participation as a tout court advantage is a mistake.

Public Affairs Quarterly, 2021

Political philosophers have mainly engaged in normatively assessing public institutions by invest... more Political philosophers have mainly engaged in normatively assessing public institutions by investigating their founding values, notably social justice and political legitimacy. The normative properties that make those institutions well-functioning have been scantly studied. But even when public institutions are established on just and legitimate grounds, it seems crucial to consider how those institutions should work to live up to their grounding reasons. In this article, we argue that the well-functioning of public institutions is premised on the establishment of an institutional ethics of office accountability. This ethics concerns the mutual duties of officeholders when they exercise their power of office in their institutional capacity.

Social Theory and Practice, 2022

Forthcoming in Social Theory and Practice. This article argues that citizens are responsible for ... more Forthcoming in Social Theory and Practice. This article argues that citizens are responsible for the way they participate in political communication and debate, including for the quality of the pieces of information they post or disseminate on social media. This view contrasts with approaches that prioritise institutional responsibility in combating misleading information. Instead, in the article’s perspective, public and private institutional interventions are justified only when they aim at sustaining citizens in upholding their epistemic duties and contribute to an environment that facilitates responsible communicative exchanges.