Safra Working Papers

Resources & Learning July 23, 2007

The Public's Trust in Government: A Book Review

Gaining and retaining the public's trust in government is the principal reason given for passing ethics codes. But there is little talk beyond this about the concept of trust. I just read a book called The Moral Foundations of Trust by Eric M. Uslaner (Cambridge University Press, 2002). This book's focus is on what the author calls 'generalized trust,' that is, the optimistic belief that people are basically trustworthy. However, the author also talks a lot about the other sort of trust, 'strategic trust,' which is a form of trust that requires reciprocity.
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Conflicts of Interest March 25, 2007

The Public-Interested Argument for Recusal

Buried in my blog entry on the Louisiana legislators' attempt to undermine recusal on constitutional grounds is a short discussion of what I refer to as 'the public-interested side' of recusal. I would like to talk a little more about this, because I think the failure to discuss it enough is a serious problem. When a government official has a conflict of interest, he or she is forced to choose between conflicting obligations.
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January 23, 2013

The Real versus The Ideal

Officials and lawyers tend to act as if they were Platonists. That is, they talk about conflicts of interest as if they existed in a ideal form, divorced from reality.
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Campaign Finance & Pay-to-Play June 28, 2011

The Reality and Purpose of Public Financing Triggers, and Government Ethics

Reading the Supreme Court majority and dissent opinions in McComish v. Bennett (attached, see below; actually Arizona Free Enterprise Club's Freedom Club PAC v. Bennett at the Supreme Court level) is a very jarring experience that I highly recommend to anyone interested in government ethics. One opinion presents the world as we know it. The other opinion exists in a different world, a world without action and inaction on the part of legislative officials that can be tied directly to contributions in support of their campaigns.
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Conflicts of Interest February 13, 2009

The Responsibility of Lawyers and Other Professionals for Unethical Conduct

What is more horrible than the scheme of two eastern Pennsylvania judges to fill two for-profit juvenile detention centers with thousands of youths who would not otherwise have been removed from their families and schools?

The fact that they could get away with it in the midst of a world of professionals – lawyers, social workers, police officers, and various court and juvenile workers -- all of whom knew that the youths were being unjustly harmed, even though they did not know why.

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Conflicts of Interest August 30, 2008

The Revolving Door and the Appearance of Impropriety

It was exciting to see someone who made her reputation as a government ethics advocate named to the Republican ticket. But it was very troubling to read how she handled a recent revolving door matter.

Also, what she did and said made me realize there is a hole in the City Ethics Model Code Project's provisions on the revolving door. The provision deals with what officials do after their public service, but not what public servants might have done before they came on board.
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Ethics Commissions & Administration July 22, 2013

The Revolving Door Between Board Membershp and a Job Approved by the Board

One kind of revolving door that is often ignored is the move from elected or appointed board or commission membership and a paid position that is approved by and under the direction of the same board or commission. It makes it look as if the board member were using her position to get herself a nice job, and exclude others. It also puts the board members in the conflicted position of overseeing a former colleague, who might very well be seen to have made a deal with them that would give them something in return for their approval.
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Conflicts of Interest May 5, 2014

The Role of Motive in Government Ethics

A conflict situation in my state of Connecticut is instructive regarding a basic concept of government ethics, as well as a basic concept of legislative immunity.

Legislators insist that they require immunity because their motives in making decisions cannot be questioned outside their body. Government ethics, on the other hand, does not consider motive, only conduct and relationships. This is one of the principal reasons why I argue that legislative immunity does not protect legislators from government ethics enforcement.
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May 28, 2009

The Rotten Tree Known as Parliament

There is a bright side to the British Parliament expenses scandal. For one thing, many M.P.'s had the fortitude to walk right by that enormous parliamentary trough and eat at home instead.

Second, Parliament showed the world how a failure to do the right thing and do it transparently — seek larger incomes — and instead to take public money clandestinely and then, when news started leaking out, to deny and obfuscate, can completely undermine trust in a public institution.
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