Transcript Administrative Ethics and Accountability

Administrative Ethics
and Accountability
Lecture 17 –
Administrative
Processes in
Government
The Origins and Nature of
Honor
 Our modern concepts of honor have their origins
in ancient Greece and Rome.
– Classic example – Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus – 458
B.C., with Rome threatened by military defeat,
Cincinnatus, a farmer, was appointed dictator by the
Senate to deal with the emergency. Abandoned his
plow in midfield, defeated the enemy in 16 days,
resigned the dictatorship, and returned to farming.
– George Washinton, one of the few Cincinnatus figures
in world history.
The Origins and Nature of
Honor
 Term limits seek to enforce legislative honor.
 Sense of honor derived from family, friends, and
the media. Based on notions of medieval
chivalry.
 Aristotle to medieval chivalry to aristocratic
dueling codes to modern concept of the
gentleman.
 Star Trek and Star Wars.
National Honor
 Once reserved for the nobility, honor has
since the eighteenth century become
increasingly democratized.
 As absolutist governments declined,
national honor became a factor that
influenced whole peoples.
– France vs. Great Britain in 1940.
Why Honor Precedes Ethics
 Honor comes before ethics because a
person without honor has no moral
compass and does not know which way to
turn to be ethical.
Why Honor Precedes Ethics
 Honor goes to the essence of public affairs;
Since ancient times only individuals
perceived to be honorable could be trusted
with the public’s business.
 Honor always has a context, is always
influenced by the prevailing organizational
and political culture.
– Melvin Belli, Errol Flynn, and the French
lawsuit.
Dimensions of Honor
 “Ex officio” – the honor associated with
the office – most superficial.
 The outward perception of one’s reputation
– business “goodwill”.
Dimensions of Honor
 True honor begins with personal integrity
and honesty.
– Honesty is the essence of honor.
– Those with integrity live up to their stated
principles and their word.
– The core of administrative ethics is integrity of
communication.
– Integrated strength or character – “gravitas”.
Dimensions of Honor
 Administrators with integrity understand
that they have a special moral obligation to
the people they serve.
 Lacking a traditional nobility, republican
governments give leadership roles to senior
bureaucrats and elected officials.
Dimensions of Honor
 Once in office, their fellow citizens rightly
expect them to take moral and career risks,
parallel to the traditional risks of combat,
to protect their fellow citizens, to protect
the regime, to protect the constitution.
 Unfortunately, lapses of honor take place
all of the time.
Corruption in Government
 Recurrent scandals and instances of official
mischief in government pose a great threat to the
democratic notions of the rule of law.
 By engaging in misuse of office for self-gain,
corrupt representatives of the people illegally put
themselves above the law.
 Moreover, a public official’s wrongdoing
undermines the argument that all people are
created equal.
Corruption in Government
Table 1. Federal Prosecutions of Public Corruption: 1980 to 1999
Prosecution status
1980 1990 1995 1999
Total Convicted1
602 1,084 878 1065
Public Officials Convicted 350 887 690 759
Federal
131 583 438 460
State
51
79
61
80
Local
168 225 191 219
1
Includes individuals who are neither public officials nor employees
Source: U.S. Department of Justice
Bribery
 Corruption also undermines economic
rights.
– Bribery in government contracting abridges
due process for the bidders and compromises
efficiency.
 However, bribery does supplement the
salary of poorly paid public officials in
some systems and increases access to the
process.
Bribery
 But exposure of bribery undermines
confidence in government and increases
cynicism.
 For some, the single most important cause
of corruption is individual greed; For
others, it is a complex combination of
opportunity, risk, organizational culture,
and individual susceptibility.
Lies Big and Little
 A big lie is an untruth so great or so
audacious that it is bound to have an effect
on public opinion.
– Adolph Hitler.
– Joseph McCarthy.
• Lies, Democrats, and Vietnam.
Lies Big and Little
 Lying for your country.
– Ambassadors.
– Patron saint of lying politicians – Niccolo
Machiavelli.
– When is it acceptable to tell a lie not for
personal benefit but for a perceived public
good?
Dirty Hands Dilemma
 When do desirable public ends justify the
lying means? When is doing evil
acceptable to produce a greater political
good?
– Tension between perceived professional
obligations and long-standing moral
obligations.
Dirty Hands Dilemma
 Machiavelli did not see it as a dilemma at all:
professional responsibilities supercede moral
judgments in all situations.
 Others would argue that public officials must be
held accountable for their unethical acts even if
those acts were done in the name of the common
good and performed by someone claiming to be a
professional or a mere functionary.
Dirty Hands Dilemma
 Most common form of the dilemma is lying
(direct falsehoods, exaggerations, omissions,
evasions, deceptions, duplicity, and so on.
 Do public officials have a special obligation to
tell the truth (popular sovereignty)? Do their
offices permit them special excuses to depart
from truth-telling (government survival and
public safety)?
 Competing stakeholders often create the
dilemma.
Administrative Ethics
 Is there administrative ethics at all?
– Ethic of neutrality?
– Ethic of structure?
 Answer: yes!
– Administrators have a positive duty to do no harm.
– “Nuremberg defense” is invalid.
• Following orders is no excuse.
• Soldiers and bureaucrats have a positive obligation to disobey
illegal and immoral orders.
Hierarchy of Ethics
 Public administrator is frequently adrift in a sea
of competing duties and obligations.
 Not so much stakeholder conflicts as conflicting
responsibilities.
 Hierarchy of ethics.
–
–
–
–
Personal morality – sense of right and wrong.
Professional ethics – professional norms.
Organizational ethics – organizational culture.
Social ethics – Social obligation to protect individuals
and further the progress of the group.
Hierarchy of Ethics
 Iran-Contra Affair.
– Reagan administration sold arms to Iran (to get Iran to
negotiate release hostages in Lebanon) at higher than
normal prices and used surplus to fund Contras in
Iran.
– Violation to sell arms to Iran or to fund Contras.
– Oliver North violated organizational and social ethics,
but justified it on the basis of personal morality and
duty to country.
 Appeal to higher law always problematic.
Whistleblowing
 Whistleblowing refers to what happens when an
employee decides that obligations to society
come before obligations to an organization.
 A whistleblower is an individual who believes
that the public interest overrides the interests of
his or her organization and publicly blows the
whistle on – exposes – corrupt, illegal,
fraudulent, or harmful activity.
 Whistleblowers not well received. “Squealers”
and blacklists.
Whistleblowing
 A. Ernest Fitzgerald (GS-17 deputy for
Management Systems in the Office of the
Assistant Secretary of the Air Force)
testified on cost overruns on the C-5A
military cargo plane.
 Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers.
Protecting Whistleblowers
 Civil Service Reform Act of 1978.
– Unlawful to retaliate against whistleblowers.
 Freedom of Information Act of 1966.
– Provides justification for whistleblowing.

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Merit Systems Protection Board.
34 state and federal laws.
Whistleblower Protection Act of 1989.
False Claims Act of 1986.
Codes of Honor, Conduct, and
Ethics
 Code of honor that forced Alexander
Hamilton to duel Aaron Burr in 1803
(pistols at ten paces). Hamilton lost, and
died.
 Dueling over honor has not subsided; it
only takes new forms (cars, pistols,
automatic weapons).
Honorable Behavior
 We still expect leaders to act honorably and
disdain them when they do not.
– Titanic 1912; HMS Birkenhead 1852.
• Edward John Smith vs. J. Bruce Ismay.
 Codes of honor have their origins in ancient
precepts about how a person should behave in the
face of danger, when confronted with temptation
or before authority figures.
Honorable Behavior
 Ten Commandments.
 As life got more complicated codes developed for
various occupations.
 Most famous – code of warriors – chivalric code.
 But, class-based.
 How did aristocratic gentlemen get common
people to behave?
 Answer: common law – the law was intended to
have a deterrent effect.
Standards of Conduct
 Many civilian government agencies now have
standards of conduct, formal guidelines, for
ethical behavior.
 Their objective is to ensure that employees
refrain from using their official positions for
private gain.
 Standards of conduct relate to a specific
organization; Codes of ethics apply to a whole
profession or occupational category.
Codes of Ethics
 American Society of Public Administration
Code of Ethics.
– http://www.aspanet.org/scriptcontent/index_co
deofethics.cfm.
 International City Manager’s Association
Code of Ethics.
– http://www.icma.org/main/bc.asp?bcid=40&hs
id=1&ssid1=2530&ssid2=2531.
Standards of Conduct
 Standards of ethical conduct for employees
of the executive branch
– http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_0
4/5cfr2635_04.html.
 Standards of conduct for the state of
California procurement and contracting
professionals.
– http://www.documents.dgs.ca.gov/pd/busmgm
t/condstand.pdf.
Standards of Conduct
 University of California Statement of
Ethical Values.
– http://www.ucop.edu/ucophome/coordrev/poli
cy/Stmt_Stds_Ethics.pdf.
 California State University Conflict of
Interest Handbook.
– http://www.calstate.edu/CSP/crl/ref/CRL056.p
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