William D. Richardson

Between Citizen and Administrator: Administrative Ethics and PAR

For American public administration, the effort to legitimate administrative discretion and convincingly to integrate the exercise of that political power with democratic institutions and processes has been ongoing and closely associated with administrative ethics. In other words, the rise of the American administrative state has been accompanied by efforts to identify and to formulate rules for the wise and proper use of administrative discretion. These efforts have also prompted considerable attention to questions relating to the substance of the public administrators duties, obligations, and responsibilities. Likewise, the limitations of institutional, organizational, and legal controls have sparked efforts to identify the character traits or virtues that public administrators should themselves possess if they are to be trusted to use public authority wisely and in the public interest.

Self-Interest Properly Understood: The American Character and Public Administration

This article explores the relationships among Founding thought, the American character, and public administration. It is argued that the Founders expected that individualism, acquisitiveness, and a concern for reputation would be major building blocks of the regime. Madison, Hamilton, and Tocqueville saw these traits as essential to the American democracy. Currently, aspects of public administration are under attack as endangering these citizen attributes. The authors contend that public administration is necessary as a corrective of certain negative features of individualism and acquisitiveness. However, it is also argued that, to be effective, administrative policies should foster the most salutary aspects of these character traits. Several early New Deal programs are used as examples of appropriate policies. Guidelines for formulating public policies in the 1980s are suggested.

Privatizing Professional Licensing Boards Self-Governance or Self-Interest?

Because professional licensing boards represent nondemocratic elements in a political system founded on democratic principles, their legitimacy has been questioned in recent years. This article examines legal and medical licensing boards in three states—Georgia, California, and Massachusetts—to determine whether developments in those states suggest a trend toward appointing citizen members to boards. The article concludes that although public acceptance of licensing boards might improve in the wake of appointing citizen members, such a cosmetic change does not necessarily ensure that the “public interest” is protected. Only when the private interests of democratically selected citizen board members are balanced against the private interests of professional board members will concerns about the legitimacy of licensing boards possibly be assuaged.

When ‘Good’ Citizens Say No: Bad Laws and Law-Abidingness

‘The rule of law’ is such an oft-used phrase that it has almost become a cliche. It seems incapable of inspiring the genuine awe that is quite properly its due—and which may be fundamental to its success in extended, populous regimes such as ours. In the world’s oldest democratic republic, perhaps we shouldn’t even pretend to be surprised at this. After all, a regime founded on a base of ‘new science of politics’ comes into being with an inherent suspicion about ancient ways and ideas (Hamilton, 1961). Nevertheless, it doesn’t take much observation of the contemporary post-Soviet world to realize that our political stepchildren, the fragile democracies and republics of every continent, are struggling precisely because one of their key deficiencies is any kind of tradition in which law (rather than men or force) truly rules. Lacking that particular tradition, it is hardly surprising that the complementary one of ‘law-abidingness’ is similarly absent among those who not so very long ago were subjects rather than citizens.

Understanding Ethics Through Literature Character Honor, and the Corruption of Body and Soul in King Rat

The subject of ethics isfrequentlyfound at the center of issues that can profoundly affect the way in which both citizens and administrators choose to live. An underused but highly effective means of introducing the complexities of the subject may be found in carefully selected works of literature. This approach can sustain the interest of students while emphasizing the critical distinctions that are afundamental part of the subject matter James Clavells King Rat is one such work of literature. In a Japanese prison camp at the close of World War II, democratic and aristocratic captives struggle to preserve their bodies without sacrificing what remains of their souls. The resulting tale provides a powerful examination of such issues as character, virtue, vice, fitness to rule, the good citizen versus the good human being, and, most especially, honor