Abstract
Whistleblowing is the act of disclosing information from a public or private organization with the purpose of revealing cases of corruption that are of immediate or potential danger to the public interest. In this paper, I outline a view of whistleblowing based on a set of general conditions of communicative felicity, moral permissibility, and moral demandingness under which whistleblowing is successful, and defend it against some recurrent objections. I conclude that in certain instances whistleblowing is a legitimate act of civil disobedience. I distinguish between whistleblowing and ordinary acts of civil disobedience, and then go on to argue that civil disobedience, under secrecy, has an epistemic character. Its need arises out of the informational asymmetry between the executive and the citizens.
For a copy of the paper please email Manohar Kumar (mkumar@iitd.ac.in).
Bio
Manohar Kumar is a postdoctoral fellow in the department of Humanities and Social Sciences at IIT, Delhi. He finished his PhD in Political Theory from Luiss University, Rome. Manohar’s primary research interests are in the field of Moral and Political Philosophy with specific focus on Secrecy, Civil disobedience, Liberty and Security, and Epistemic Injustice. His PhD thesis titled 'For Whom the Whistle Blows? Secrecy, Civil Disobedience,and Democratic Accountability' explored the impact of governmental practices of secrecy on rights and autonomy of individuals as well as on the democratic structures of accountability, and the role that whistleblowing can play in correcting some 'democratic deficits'. Currently he is working on a book on a general theory of whistleblowing.
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