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EXPIATING EVIL: REFLECTIONS ON THE DIFFICULTIES OF CULTURAL, ORGANIZATIONAL AND INDIVIDUAL REPARATION
Author(s) -
ADAMS GUY B.,
BALFOUR DANNY L.
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
public administration
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.313
H-Index - 93
eISSN - 1467-9299
pISSN - 0033-3298
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-9299.2008.00741.x
Subject(s) - forgiveness , moral evil , political ponerology , good and evil , environmental ethics , sociology , sign (mathematics) , epistemology , criminology , social psychology , psychology , philosophy , mathematical analysis , mathematics
Evil actions by human beings show little sign of diminution as the twenty‐first century unfolds. Evil can be defined as the knowing infliction of pain and suffering – physical and/or psychological – on another human being. It can be perpetrated by individuals, by organizations, and by nation states, among others. It can take the form of administrative evil, in which people participate in acts of evil while thinking they are just doing what they should be doing in their organizational role. Under conditions of moral inversion, evil can be engaged in under the guise of doing good. While some aspects of evil’s aftermath are clear enough through the trail of mass graves, broken bodies and lives, and trans‐generational reverberations, the possibilities of expiating evil, including administrative evil, through processes of forgiveness, reconciliation and reparation, especially on the part of organizations and states, remain under‐explored. This article begins that exploration.