Author Description

There Are Many Actions That We Attribute, At Least Colloquially, To States. Given Their Size And Influence, States Are Able To Inflict Harm Far Beyond The Reach Of A Single Individual. But There Is A Great Deal Of Unclarity About Exactly Who Is Implicated In That Kind Of Harm, And How We Should Think About Responsibility For It. It Is A Commonplace Assumption That Democratic Publics Both Authorize And Have Control Over What Their States Do; That Their States Act In Their Name And On Their Behalf. In Not In Their Name, Holly Lawford-smith Approaches These Questions From The Perspective Of Social Ontology, Asking Whether The State Is A Collective Agent, And Whether Ordinary Citizens Are Members Of That Agent. If It Is, And They Are, There's A Clear Case For Democratic Collective Culpability. She Explores Alternative Conceptions Of The State And Of Membership In The State; Alternative Conceptions Of Collective Agency Applied To The State; The Normative Implications Of Membership In The State; And Both Culpability (from The Inside) And Responsibility (from The Outside) For What The State Does. Ultimately, Lawford-smith Argues For The Exculpation Of Ordinary Citizens And The Inculpation Of Those Working In Public Services.