Moraalin luonne ja omantunnonkysymykset

Författare

• Rauli Mickelsson
• Markku Oksanen

Abstract

The nature of human morality is a time-honoured theme in social sciences. This paper sheds light on the nature of morality and moral-based or ethics-driven politics in a democratic society. It combines empirical and theoretical research. As for the theoretical approach, the paper attempts to identify the differences between political and moral deliberation and how the differences appear in case studies. In countries with coalition governments politics is often about compromising. However, there are limits for compromises and negotiations. These limits are often conceived in terms of morality. A key feature of ethical deliberation is that the ethical convictions are ultimate and non-negotiable. This is in stark contrast to most political issues that are negotiable. The empirical part focuses on the so-called cases of conscience in Finnish parliamentary politics which split up the established divisions of party-lines. We will study five recent cases in Finnish parliamentary politics. Our empirical material consists of the transcripts of parliamentary debates and records of voting behaviour. The debates will be analysed by means of argumentation analysis. The conclusion of the article is that theoretical analysis and the outcomes of empirical analysis do not meet conveniently: the cases of conscience in eduskunta are an exceptional way of coming to a decision in an exceptional institution.