Public Roles, Private Roles, and the Question of South African Investments

Abstract

Should the trustees of educational institutions sell their investments in companies doing business in South Africa? Discussions of this question have tended to generate more heat than light, partly because role expectations for trustees are not well defined but also because the differences between public and private roles are not well understood. In both of these respects, the question of South African investments is typical of many of the moral problems that arise in periods of rapid social change. An analysis of some of the concepts underlying this disagreement should therefore have a wider relevance. Accordingly, in the first three sections of this paper the kinds of situations which are likely to be morally problematic are redefined in terms of conflicts over role expectations, especially conflicts between expectations for private and for public roles. In the last section of the paper the distinctions introduced in the first three sections are applied to the question of South African investments. Though it is not to be expected that this analysis will dissolve the disagreement over divestment, disputants may at least learn what it is that they are disputing about.

Files

Additional details