Ethics in Public Administration

Ethics is not a new topic in public administration, and the amount of information on the subject demonstrates the importance of ethics in the field. For instance, a recent article examined the impact of New Public Management on ethics and found that the framework for NPM has a definite impact of the ethical decisions of administrators (Maesschalk, 2004). Currently, ethics seems an especially urgent aspect of public administration. Whether it is a national leader invoking a “war on terror” or a local city manager proposing an inefficient transportation plan, the consequences are almost always cited as the main reason for an action. Religion or some other value-based rationale may be cited as well, but many times, the reasoning can usually be traced back to how the consequences affect one personally. The most common form of this is the use of focus groups or polls. Convictions are not found in principles or virtues but in prospects for re-election. In this article we do not argue against consequential thinking, which is an extremely appropriate form of reasoning in the 21st century. Rather we support a more demanding form of consequential thinking which includes the considerations of Utilitarianism, as it would bring public administrators back to their actual duties, namely deciding how to maximize the good of a diverse and complex population. Just as importantly, the environment of public administration in this century is wildly different than it was even ten years ago. Today’s globalized world demands a more comprehensive form of thinking to realize the impact a decision may have throughout the globe. Ethicists and moral philosophers generally agree there are three major theories in applied ethics. While most would concur that there is not a single correct approach, we tend to have inclinations toward one approach rather than others. The three approaches are Character-based ethics (Aristotle 340 BC - virtue ethics), Rule-based ethics (Kant 1785 – deontology) and