ABSTRACT
Political philosophers, legal and public administration scholars, whistleblower protection laws, national and international guidance documents, and courts – all agree that a breach of state secrecy by disclosing classified documents is justified if it serves the public interest. Though appeals to the public interest are incredibly common they are also made rather casually. The aggregative method of determining the public interest may be considered morally objectionable in that it appears to render minority interests inferior to majority interests, irrespective of the content of those interests. The procedural account holds that the public interest coincides with the result of a democratic decision-making procedure. Unitary theories of the public interest, as found in Aristotle, do not derive the public interest from people’s private interests, but rather from a comprehensive moral theory that applies equally to private and to public interests.
