Duty to Respond

The central claim of the book is that all members of the group in whose name collective crime is committed share responsibility for it. Discusses analytical and normative defense of arguments that purport to explain reasons for, and the character of, responsibility of decent people. Those who did not intend, support, or committed wrong, are still accountable in a non-vicarious manner. The basis of their responsibility is the crime-specific relationship between group identity and personal identity. Combines eye witness experience with the best of current scholarship on one of the most serious ethical issues of the day, namely, responding to criminal behavior of a national regime. This fact-rich review of emblematic political events in the recent past shows not only what it means to assume responsibility for the criminal actions of a corrupt regime but also frames the argument in the context of a critique of moral relativism.