that people without power should be considered less morally culpable for their actions
I strongly disagree with this. People without power often have less impact from their actions, and actions that do less harm should be judged less harshly. But this is a judgement of the degree of wrongness of the action, not the blame-ability of the person.
Also, moral culpability is not zero-sum. There’s plenty of blame for everyone making harmful decisions, and “just following orders” is not a valid defense. Giving bad orders is clearly more harmful than following, but in fact more followers adds to the total and to the individual blame, rather than distributing it.
I strongly disagree with this. People without power often have less impact from their actions, and actions that do less harm should be judged less harshly. But this is a judgement of the degree of wrongness of the action, not the blame-ability of the person.
Also, moral culpability is not zero-sum. There’s plenty of blame for everyone making harmful decisions, and “just following orders” is not a valid defense. Giving bad orders is clearly more harmful than following, but in fact more followers adds to the total and to the individual blame, rather than distributing it.