Robert N. Roberts

Public Journalism and Public Knowledge

Public journalism is challenging the more traditional notions of mainstream journalism. It represents an attempt to connect journalists with the communities within which they operate. It places citizen input at the center of journalistic concerns. In this essay, we examine the origin and development of public journalism. We note a few of the similarities in this movement to the early muckrakers operating at the turn of the century. We then consider the state of public political knowledge and how this affects public journalism efforts. Finally, we argue for educational reforms to aid public journalism in connecting to a more deliberative public.

The Rise of Compliance-Based Ethics Management: Implications for Organizational Ethics

Compliance-based ethics management has become the primary method of maintaining high ethical standards in governmental and non-governmental organizations. There are several reasons why organizations have embraced compliance regulation as the key method of keeping public confidence in their integrity. Compliance-based management (1) provides organizations a certain level of immunity from illegal acts committed by their employees and officials, and (2) significantly reduces pressures to implement integrity-based programs by lowering organizational ethical expectations. The heavy reliance on compliance ethics has made it much more difficult for employees and officials to hold organizations accountable for actions that fall outside the scope of compliance-based ethics laws and regulations.

Local News, Presidential Campaigns, and Citizenship Education: A Reform Proposal

Greenberg, Edward S. 1989. The American Political System: A Radical Approach, 5th ed. Glenview, IL: Scott, Foresman. Greenberg, Edward S., and Benjamin I. Page. 1993. The Struggle For Democracy. New York: HarperCollins. Havick, John. 1991. American Democracy in Transition: A Communications Revolution. St. Paul, MN: West. Holmes, Jack E., Michael J. Engelhardt, and Robert E. Elder. 1991. American Government: Essentials and Perspectives. New York: McGraw Hill.

Mandatory contractor codes of ethics and defense procurement integrity

The article examines the potential impact of FAR Subpart 3:10, Contractor Code of Business Ethics and Conduct on the system for regulating defense procurement integrity. The article argues that the adoption of the new Contractor Code of Business Ethics and Conduct will not change the already heavy emphasis placed on full compliance with criminal and civil statutes directed at protecting procurement integrity. The article also argues that the defense procurement integrity program should devote equal attention to adoption of non-criminal standards of conduct directed at assuring the impartiality and objectivity of contractor employees. Finally, the article argues that in order to rebuild public trust in contractor employees the FAR Council should require contractor employees who perform duties similar to full-time federal employees to comply with a new uniform set of non-criminal standards of conduct rules directed at assuring the impartiality and objectivity of contractor employees.

Teaching Law in Public Administration Programs

Abstract This study argues that public agencies face a multitude of legal issues directly related to the administration of public programs and the delivery of public goods and services. Despite this fact, the vast majority of public administration programs continue to offer traditional administrative law courses that only indirectly deal with public sector risk management. The article also argues that public administration programs should consider offering courses on public administration’s legal environment, focusing more heavily upon public sector risk management issues in order to help prepare graduates of public administration programs to effectively manage and reduce the potential legal liability of their organizations and themselves. The article does not argue that public administration programs should abandon the teaching of administrative law. It does argue that courses on the legal environment of public administration should be restructured to include subjects such as the management of government ethics, public contracts, and public employment law.

The Judicial Response to the Presidential Polarization of the Administrative State

From the late 20th century through today, the relationship between the administrative state and the judiciary has undergone major changes. The same period has seen presidential administrations seek to make use of bureaucratic power to implement their public policy initiatives without having to obtain the approval of Congress. After reviewing the evolution of judicial oversight of the administrative state, the essay argues that the federal courts now make use of an ad hoc approach for determining the scope of judicial oversight of the administrative process. The essay argues that the use of this ad hoc approach has done serious damage to the administrative state, providing insufficient guidelines for presidential administrations to make use of bureaucratic power to implement public policy initiatives.

The Search for Accountability: United States v. McDonnell and the Fundamental Right to Honest Government

The U.S. Supreme Court in McDonnell v. United States (2016) vacated the conviction of a former Virginia governor for accepting bribes. The court found that arranging a meeting, calling or contacting another official, or hosting an event does not, by itself, rise to the level of an official act under the Hobbs Act and the mail and wire fraud statutes. This article argues that the Supreme Court’s decision in McDonnell v. United States will make it much more difficult for federal prosecutors to prosecute state and local governments for helping private individuals gain preferential access to government decision-makers at the state or local level. The article also argues that the decision will put pressure on state legislatures to significantly tighten state ethics laws to stop this type of conduct that reduces public trust in government.

Safeguarding the public trust: Teaching organizational dissent in an era of political polarization

ABSTRACT Over recent decades political polarization has transformed the political, ideological, and cultural landscape of the United States. Political polarization has also contributed to increased attacks against the administrative state and career public servants. As a result, some career public servants have fought back making use of various methods of organizational dissent. The article argues that MPA/PPA programs have a moral obligation to help students understand the impact of political polarization on the administrative state and to help students in MPA/PPA to explore organizational dissent in the context of political polarization.

Public Service, Public Corruption and the First Amendment The Implications of Lane v. Franks for Public Employee Public Corruption Watchdogs

The 2006 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Garcetti v. Ceballos imposed significant new restrictions on the First Amendment freedom of speech rights of public employees. Specifically, the Garcetti majority held that the First Amendment did not provide any protections for internal or external communications made in the course of performing their official duties. The 2014 case of Lane v. Franks provided the U.S. Supreme Court the opportunity to decide whether the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit properly denied First Amendment protection for testimony given by an employee of an Alabama community college who testified during a federal public corruption trial. The U.S. Supreme Court, by a vote of 9 to 0, held that Garcetti did not block the employee from proceeding with a claim that the community college retaliated against him for his trial testimony. The U.S. Supreme Court recognized a public corruption testimony exception to Garcetti.

The constitutional privacy rights of public employees

Despite the significant expansion of the constitutional rights of public employees during the last three decades, the Supreme Court has proven extremely reluctant to restrict public-sector employment practices on the grounds that they violate the constitutional privacy rights of public employees. This treatment of the privacy rights of public employees is likely to continue because of the Courts formulation of a public-service vision of the public-employment relationship. The adoption of the public-service vision has provided the Court the basis for continuing the policy of declining to strictly scrutinize employment practices that arguably limit the privacy of public employees both on and off the job.