Langford&Tupper_Presentation

Managing Public Sector Ethics: Doing Fine or Losing

Touch With Reality?

IPAC National Conference Victoria, BC August 29 2011

John Langford Allan Tupper University of Victoria University of British Columbia

How are we doing?

► Concerted effort to enhance public sector ethics over last 20 years

► But are we making progress? ► We will briefly expose our views which are

regrettably somewhat negative ► Then we want to hear your reactions and

engage in a dialogue

Avoiding Moral Responsibility

► Moral responsibility: willingness to accept blame or praise for your involvement in government actions or inactions

► Public servants continue to be reluctant ► The excuses: neutrality, structure, dirty hands

prerogative ► The consequences: potential for ruthless, blame

deflecting behaviour; no accountability; no room for moral courage; engenders public mistrust

Secrecy Reasserts Itself

►  Some interesting open gov developments (eg data dumps; online citizen engagement; enhanced services to mobile devices)

►  But brief era of open government is over ►  Government resistance to transparency stiffening ►  New rationales for secrecy emerging ►  Repressive, risk adverse approach to social media ►  Mixed messages to public servants re openness ►  Public servants often willing partners in secrecy, “spin” and

misinformation ►  Emerging public “ethic of detachment” (Roberts)

Say Goodbye to Privacy

► What is privacy in information age? ► Growing arsenal of tools for violating privacy ► Demands for security from terrorism, public health

and safety threats, etc. ► Erosion of privacy in private life ► Continuing public anxiety about flow of personal

information ► Public officials always pushing boundaries on the

appropriate limits of that flow ► No moral justification consensus emerging

Complicity

►  “Instances of serious ethical failing in government normally involve many people. Two groups are always evident – perpetrators and abettors. Abettors are those who condone misconduct with silence even when they know about it and have the power to act.”

►  Why are abettors unethical? ►  How is the problem of “many hands” dealt with? ►  Why do so many people assume the role of abettor? ►  Can abettors be assigned collective responsibility and

blame for serious ethical misconduct?

Private Conduct and Work Performance

►  “With little debate or thought, Canadian governments have added private conduct to an already (too) crowded ethics agenda. We’ve moved too far, too quickly on this subject.”

►  Who determines “proper” private conduct? ►  Does “private conduct” involve such matters, for example, as

religious beliefs and practices, child rearing practices, and artistic preferences?

►  Should the quest to probe private conduct lead to even more diminished privacy for public office holders and their families?

►  Are high standards of private conduct reliable indicators of on job performance?

►  Are public servants really “role models” for society?

The Ethics Industry is Failing

►  “Canadian Governments, media and interest groups have formed an ethics industry that produces diminishing returns and does not reflect public opinion.”

►  The Ethics Industry Described ►  Harnessing the Ethics Industry - Suggested Improvement A: A

streamlined, more sophisticated sense of the public sector ethics agenda.

►  Suggested Improvement B - Development of a clear sense of the importance of good ethics compared with other major issues. Good government ethics are fundamentally important to the quality of democracy. However, the ethics industry has not achieved good government ethics and exaggerates the importance of good ethics. It lacks a sense of “proportion”.