The Culture of Ethics That the Public Sector Needs
Formal codes of ethics are worthwhile, but there is a lot more that can be done, both in government and in schools of public administration.
October 10, 2014 • The current issue of
Public Administration Review includes a fascinating article by James Svara of Arizona State University on ethics for public servants. The genesis of Svara s inquiry is the adoption last year by the American Society for Public Administration (ASPA) of a revision of its code of ethics.
ASPA first adopted a code of ethics in 1984, but other professional organizations had such codes much earlier, going back (at least in this country) to the International City/County Management Association s code that was adopted in 1924. Svara recounts the history of codes of ethics and reviews the debates about their usefulness. This could not be more timely. Given the seemingly incessant drumbeat of scandals at all levels of gov