Tài liệu Common Ground, Common Future Moral Agency in Public Administration, Professions, and

Common Ground,

Common Future

Moral Agency in

Public Administration,

Professions, and Citizenship

DK3160_half 6/2/05 1:32 PM Page A

PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION AND PUBLIC POLICY

A Comprehensive Publication Program

Executive Editor

JACK RABIN

Professor of Public Administration and Public Policy

School of Public Affairs

The Capital College

The Pennsylvania State University—Harrisburg

Middletown, Pennsylvania

Assistant to the Executive Editor

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84. Handbook of Criminal Justice Administration, edited by

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115. Common Ground, Common Future: Moral Agency in Public

Administration, Professions, and Citizenship, Charles

Garofalo and Dean Geuras

Available Electronically

Principles and Practices of Public Administration, edited by Jack

Rabin, Robert F. Munzenrider, and Sherrie M. Bartell

DK3160_series.qxd 6/2/05 1:07 PM Page 5

Charles Garofalo

Texas State University

San Marcos, Texas, U.S.A.

Dean Geuras

Texas State University

San Marcos, Texas, U.S.A.

Common Ground,

Common Future

Moral Agency in

Public Administration,

Professions, and Citizenship

Boca Raton London New York Singapore

A CRC title, part of the Taylor & Francis imprint, a member of the

Taylor & Francis Group, the academic division of T&F Informa plc.

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Garofalo, Charles.

Common ground, common future : moral agency in public administration, professions, and

citizenship / Charles Garafalo [sic], Dean Geuras.

p. cm. -- (Public administration and public policy ; 115)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 0-8247-5337-2

1. Public administration--Moral and ethical aspects. 2. Public administration--Moral and ethical

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Preface

The aim of this book is to examine the public and private roles of the citizen as

a moral agent. We define the moral agent as a person who, rather than merely

behaving in a manner consistent with morality, recognizes morality as a motive

for action. The moral agent not only follows moral principles but also acknowl￾edges morality as his or her principal.

In developing the notion of the moral agent, we accord a special significance

to public administration. We argue that public administration is a fundamentally

moral enterprise that exists to serve values that society considers significant

enough to support. It is dedicated to the provision of goods and services that

society recognizes as important enough to justify the expenditure of our collective

resources. It is committed to the creation and cultivation of the admittedly elusive

but nonetheless central concept of the public interest. Therefore, public admin￾istration is, by definition, inherently moral, and public administrators are, again

by definition, moral agents.

We maintain that its inherently moral nature makes public administration a

plausible prototype for other professions to emulate as they pursue their own

objectives. Thus, as illustrative cases, we explore business, particularly corporate

social responsibility; the practice of medicine, especially managed care; higher

education; and the legal profession. In our view, all of these professions and

others are experiencing moral distress and confusion that can be alleviated by

recognizing public administration’s moral nature and the compelling need for

reciprocity and trust across all sectors of our society. Although moral public

administration remains a work in progress, its essential purpose can serve as a

gyroscope or centrifuge to stabilize and direct our collective moral development.

But we are not utopians, proposing the removal of politics from politics. Instead,

we are proposing that individuals and institutions acknowledge the presence and

power of universal values embodied in public administration as the central expres￾sion of moral agency and citizenship. We are proposing that public administration

become the model of moral governance in American society.

In the process, we offer the unified ethic — a combination of the major strands

of philosophical ethical theory — that we contend can help elucidate and enhance

our individual and institutional moral identities. Just as we call for a shift from

business to government as the institutional embodiment of central values, we,

once again, call for a shift from a disparate approach to moral thinking and action

to an integrated one in which principle, consequences, and character are under￾stood both in their own right and as inseparable from each other. This holistic

perspective, we believe, can provide intellectual and moral clarity and the impetus

for still another shift, this time in ethics training, away from the legalistic,

procedural, and superficial and toward reasoning and judgment, as well as toward

morally grounded decision-making skills and the exercise of discretion.

This book is intended to appeal to practitioners in various professions; to

academics responsible for research and graduate teaching in administrative,

applied, and professional ethics; and to citizens interested in clarifying the inev￾itable and insistent moral ambiguities and perplexities associated with their per￾sonal and professional lives, including their responsibilities as members of the

polity. Its title, Common Ground, Common Future: Moral Agency in Public

Administration, Professions, and Citizenship, signifies our principal purpose and

our abiding hope: the development of a broad perspective on our individual and

collective roles and responsibilities as citizens, professionals, and moral beings,

as well as the recognition of our mutual obligations to the large and small

challenges inherent in the processes of governance.

The initial chapter provides a general overview of the book’s central themes,

including the notion of the moral agent, moral agency in the professions and in

citizenship, and the concept of the unified ethic, which is intended to help moral

agents in making moral decisions. The second and third chapters discuss the

special status of the public administrator as a moral agent. Chapters 4–7 concern

moral agency in the important professional fields of business, medicine, law, and

higher education. Chapter 8 examines the unified ethic, while Chapter 9 applies

the unified ethic to moral agency. Chapter 10 presents a critique, from a conser￾vative and liberal perspective, of our respective positions on the public adminis￾trator as a moral exemplar. Chapter 11 concludes with a proposal for meeting the

conditions required to establish moral agency in public administration, across

professions, and in the citizenry.

Table of Contents

Preface...................................................................................................................v

Chapter 1 The Moral Agent, Moral Organization, and the Public

Administrator...................................................................................1

What Is a Moral Agent? .......................................................................................1

The Special Ethical Aspects of Public Organizations..........................................5

Citizenship and Public Administration.................................................................7

The Ethical Environment of Public Administration.............................................9

The Need for Ethical Reasoning in Public Administration ...............................10

Moral Agency, the Public Administrator, and the Private Citizen.....................15

References ...........................................................................................................16

Chapter 2 Moral Agency in the Public Sector...............................................17

The Ideal Public Administrator ..........................................................................18

The Legislator’s Moral Agency ..........................................................................24

The Judiciary and Moral Agency..............................................................26

Classification of Moral Decisions in Public Administration....................27

Evaluation ..................................................................................................27

Conflicts of Obligations......................................................................................28

Unclear Obligations...................................................................................29

Bending and Breaking the Rules........................................................................30

Moral Whistle-Blowing.......................................................................................31

The Ideal and the Real........................................................................................31

References ...........................................................................................................32

Chapter 3 Ethical Breakdowns in Public Administration..............................35

Insufficient Commitment ....................................................................................35

Self over Social Good ...............................................................................35

The Organization over Social Good .........................................................36

Organizational Goal Displacement ...........................................................37

Personal Loyalties .....................................................................................39

Insufficient Commitment and Moral Agency ...........................................40

Excessive Commitment to Goals........................................................................40

Interorganizational Conflicts .....................................................................40

Organizational Goals versus Public Values ..............................................42

Organizational Goals versus Moral Principles .........................................42

Overcommitment and Moral Agency........................................................43

Moral Dilemmas .................................................................................................43

The Public Administrator as Strong Evaluator...................................................44

References ...........................................................................................................46

Chapter 4 Ethics in Business .........................................................................49

CSR ...................................................................................................................49

Opponents of CSR ..............................................................................................50

Proponents of CSR..............................................................................................52

Discussion ...........................................................................................................55

Perspectives on Government...............................................................................56

Conclusion...........................................................................................................62

References ...........................................................................................................63

Chapter 5 Managed Care ..............................................................................65

Origins and Structure of Managed Care ............................................................66

Moral Challenges of Managed Care...................................................................68

Alternative Perspectives on Managed Care........................................................75

References ...........................................................................................................77

Chapter 6 The Legal Profession.....................................................................79

The Client’s Interest and the Interests of Justice ...............................................80

Moral Obligations Common to the Legal Profession ........................................83

The Legal Profession and Public Service...........................................................85

Civil Law.............................................................................................................87

Attorneys Committed to Causes.........................................................................88

Conclusion...........................................................................................................89

References ...........................................................................................................89

Chapter 7 Higher Education...........................................................................91

Ethics in the Academy: Level 1 .........................................................................92

Ethics in the Academy: Level 2 .........................................................................94

University–Government Partnerships .................................................................95

University–Business Partnerships.......................................................................97

Intercollegiate Athletics ....................................................................................100

Conclusion.........................................................................................................102

References .........................................................................................................103

Chapter 8 Unifying Ethical Theory..............................................................105

Traditional Ethical Theories..............................................................................105

Ethical Relativism ...................................................................................105

Teleological Ethical Theories..................................................................106

Deontological Ethical Theories...............................................................108

Intuitionist Theories.................................................................................110

Virtue Theory...........................................................................................111

The Unity of the Absolutist Theories...............................................................112

Unifying Ethical Theories in the Decision-Making Process..................113

The Citizenship of the Moral Agent .......................................................114

The Kantian Legislator in the Kingdom of Ends and the Moral Agent..........116

The Unified Ethic, Communitarianism, and Individualism .............................117

Rawls and the Unified Ethic.............................................................................119

References .........................................................................................................122

Chapter 9 Applying the Unified Ethic to Moral Agency ............................125

The Moral Agent as Morally Responsible Citizen...........................................125

Insufficient Commitment to Moral Values .......................................................125

Overcommitment to Specific Values.......................................................127

Conflicts among Moral Values................................................................127

Clarification of the Role of the Moral Agent as Moral Exemplar.........131

Transformation and Reconfiguration ................................................................133

Moral Agency in Business................................................................................135

Use of Foreign, Low-Wage Labor....................................................................136

Should Tobacco Companies Exist? ..................................................................138

The Moral Exemplarship of the Private Executive ..........................................140

Moral Agency and the Attorney .......................................................................141

Encouraging the Process of Moral Agency in the Health Professions............142

Higher Education in the Context of the Kingdom of Ends .............................144

References .........................................................................................................146

Chapter 10 The Public Agent as Exemplar for the Private Professional:

A Dialogue...................................................................................149

Points of Agreement..........................................................................................150

Geuras: The Public Administrator as Citizen Exemplar Model

Does Not Fully Apply to the Private Sector...........................................153

Objection 1: I Have Argued That the Role of the Citizen Can

Conflict with the Role of the Private Professional...............................158

Reply............................................................................................158

Objection 2: I Have Argued That the Responsibilities of a Citizen

to Promote the Public Interest Might Clash with One’s

Responsibilities to His or Her Own Moral Value System ...................158

Reply............................................................................................159

Objection 3: I Have Argued That the Public Administrator, as a

Moral Exemplar, Must Act Morally .....................................................160

Reply............................................................................................160

Garofalo’s Response .........................................................................................161

Summary ...........................................................................................................165

Chapter 11 Common Ground, Common Future ............................................169

Introduction .......................................................................................................169

Requirements for Reform .................................................................................170

Adaptation of the Principles of the Blacksburg Manifesto ....................170

Political–Administrative Relations..........................................................171

Investment in Change..............................................................................177

Conclusion.........................................................................................................180

References .........................................................................................................182

Index .................................................................................................................185