To build on the gains made in recent years, ethics training will have to accomplish several goals. First, ethics training needs to focus on unleashing participants’ intrinsic motivation to be ethical, rather than rely on sol
Most books of relevance to local government ethics deal with administrative ethics, that is, the ethical behavior of government administrators, rather than with conflicts or government ethics programs. However, they do deal partially with government ethics, and it is valuable to see how government ethics fits in the larger context of administrative ethics. Most of the books on government ethics deal primarily with the federal and state levels; the ones that focus on local government are either old or international.
I just read a classic work of philosophical psychology, Self-Deception (Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1969), wherein Herbert Fingarette takes an interesting approach to a phenomenon common to politics, but which seems paradoxical and, therefore, difficult to understand. How can someone effectively lie to himself as well as to others (and is it still a lie)?
Lecture by Dr. Bill English
Larry Lessig has a concept of Institutional Corruption (IC) as a deviation from the purpose of the organization. This is shown graphically by a compass pointing north--true north is the purpose of the organization; if you get pulled off of true north (like with a magnet pulling the compass off of north), that represents corrupting influences.
So the number one question is what is the purpose of your organization? Why does it deviate from that purpose?
City EthicsBreaking the oxymoron: "City Ethics"