Public administration and ethics
Last night was the fourth annual Dalmas H. Nelson Lecture on Public Law and Ethics. Dr. Terry Cooper from USC was the speaker. Dr. Cooper is the author of The Responsible Administrator, a book I read and reviewed for Ted Hebert’s administrative practice class (oh, so long ago now).
Dr. Cooper’s purpose in the lecture was to identify some “big questions” in administrative ethics. The first of his big questions is the one that is most interesting to me, and that is: “What are the normative foundations for public administrative ethics?” This is an especially important question, in light of the pluralistic world in which we live.
As part of his discussion on the this search for a normative foundation, Dr. Cooper suggested that one of the questions often asked is “Whose ethics should we adopt?” Whose indeed? For example, in Utah where 70% of the state’s population belongs to the LDS Church this decision may be somewhat easier to make: let’s just all subscribe to the dominant groups perception of what is ethical and what is not. Such a decision essentially belittles other groups’ ethical constructs, and in fact is an abdication of responsibility. As a profession, public administrators should be deeply concerned about creating their own set of professional ethics that can transcend individual ethics (though not replace them) and serve as a common foundation upon which ethical decisions can be constructed.
This notion appeals to me in that it requires us to look for those elements that are common to all public administrators’ perceptions of what is ethical behavior without raising one personal standard of behavior above another. (Dr. Cooper also spoke of learning from other administrators’ ethical practices; this reflection on others’ actions is not the same as entering into a qualitative judgement regarding the superiority of one ethical view over another.)
The day after Dr. Cooper’s lecture, the local chapter of the American Society for Public Administration held a one-day conference on ethics. The morning session picked up where Dr. Cooper had ended in his lecture the night before, with questions and discussion on some of the issues he had raised. One issue in particular has caused me some thought: Dr. Cooper referred to “administrative courage” or the ability to “speak truth to power” (a phrase borrowed from Aaron Wildavsky). Administrative courage, or ethical courage, is the strength of character necessary to inform those in positions of authority that their actions are inappropriate, wrong, illegal, unethical, when such actions occur, even at the risk of losing one’s job.
As an example, he discussed ethics training that he had given to a police department, where he suggested to the officers that they turn in their partners if these behaved inappropriately. As one might suspect, the officers were reluctant to subscribe to such a course of action, to which Dr. Cooper replied that he was simply asking them to sacrifice their jobs, rather than their lives, which, he reminded them, they had already sworn to do to uphold the laws.
But this is hard, isn’t it? Where can we find this type of courage? The question is particularly pertinent when we think upon those instances where public administrators have stood their ethical ground and then suffered for it. Perhaps we can find some of that courage in examining the lives of others, as Dr. Cooper suggested, and by having a well-developed professional ethic to which we can subscribe. And perhaps it can be found by engaging in profound and honest self-reflection, where we examine our own motives and values and reconcile them (or not) with our professional lives.
