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Title: Public Integrity by J. Patrick Dobel ISBN: 0-8018-6916-1 Publisher: Johns Hopkins Univ Pr Pub. Date: February, 2002 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $20.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4 (1 review)
Rating: 4
Summary: A Moral Compass for Public Administrators
Comment: Those who decide to participate in politics or those who choose to hold public office must inevitably make moral and ethical choices. The morality of both these processes and the outcomes of political decisions often go unexamined. J. Patrick Dobel examines the bases of moral choice in politics, the manner in which citizens and elected officials make these choices, and the moral implications of the political decision making process. He has brought his research efforts to bear in his book, and superbly addresses the complexities of human nature with the obligations and requirements of public service.
Recognizing that there are differences as to what constitutes moral principles and behaviors, Dobel argues that whatever the source, integrity and judgment form the bedrock of public morality. He focuses squarely on the individual as a "complex moral being" and his conclusions, void of any concrete prescriptions or "quick fixes," presents insight into the dilemmas and conflicts plaguing public officials. Dobel believes that "the moral structure of holding office - whether legislative or executive, elected, appointed or career - is the same. All involve people in a promise to live up to obligations of office in a web of reliance and to frame their judgments by standards embedded in the office's responsibilities" (p. xi). It is this concept of integrity that anchors ethics, "fosters high quality decisions and supports the delegations of power" (p. 213). The absence of integrity leads to the erosion of trust in government, ineptness, duplicity and arrogance.
Individuals holding public office in a liberal democracy are presumed to be moral agents capable of maintaining personal integrity while enduring the strains and stresses of their obligations. He develops his exposé of public integrity through parallelisms with personal integrity suggesting that public integrity involve the integration of personal beliefs, commitments, practical choice and action. Dobel suggests that public integrity is not obtained through subordination of personal commitments, judicious actions or constraints of the office itself, but rather through mastering the art of judgment. Using thematically related essays focusing on classical and modern political theory, Dobel draws on philosophical perspectives, fictional analogies, case studies, memoirs, and interviews in describing how public integrity requires a balance between the "personal and the public, [and] not on their total separation from each other" (p. 214).
Dobel views public integrity as a balance between three domains, each containing at least one crucial domain of reasoning. Dobel weaves these domains into a fourth model of integrity, a "triangle model" of public responsibility and commitment, and identifies which none of the domains independent of each other, can adequately meet. Dobel argues that this triangle model is more adaptable to the concept of public integrity since integrity is a "iterative process in which public officials move within a triangle of judgment" (p. 2), creating a balanced tension between the three domains. However, when the tension between the domains is bridged or violated through temptations of power and sleaze, the erosion of integrity, or "moral incompleteness," public integrity is compromised. Such breakdowns can result from, the collapse of self into office, the assertion of self over office, the denial of humanity of opponents, the costs of betrayal, the diminishing of emotions and moral discernment.
Human behavior and various factors within the political environment impact and disrupt the ability to make moral decisions. The intensity of forces influence decisions when conflicts arise between external forces and internally programmed integrity. Temptations of power induce a form of stress that Dobel refers to as "cognitive dissonance" (p. 27) and the resultant stress strains the "tension between personal commitment and capacities and the demands of office" (p. 27), weakening the triangle of judgment.
Dobel argues that integrity is more prone to survive in environments where change results from individual reflection, evolves from personal character over time, or is instilled through training and cultural environments. Integrity languishes in environments where there are real or perceived threats to basic moral values and interests, conflicting social interests, or a group think mentality. Integrity can survive provided these variations are externally forced and associated with differing roles of public officials within their respective office. The synergistic interaction of the three domains of public integrity mesh and reinforce each other enabling an individual to "perform official responsibilities" (p. 115).
In a world in which political figures and others holding public office are often viewed under a microscope, Dobel sees character as a trait that does matter and suggests that public officials must be capable of appropriately responding to satisfactions and disappointments of their actions. Dobel rightly points out that "under the rubric of public integrity, all commitments are personal commitments" (p. 11), and "the central values of personal integrity entwine with the commitments to public service, giving them coherency and resiliency" (p. 14). There is no doubt that personal integrity enhances political prudence and simultaneously provides an internal check against abuse of office. Individuals risk moral negligence as leaders if they do not attend to the framework of political prudence, which includes critical aspects of judgment, openness to knowledge, timing and momentum, acquiring power and minimizing coercion (p. xv).
Responsible administration requires ethical decision making skills that are oftentimes cultivated with theory and experience. However in all too many instances holders of public office work from the deontological ethics notion of a duty, holding at bay their obligations to act with the consequential good always in mind. "Public integrity obliges individuals to risk the temptations of power. For them (individuals with character) power does not corrupt, it enables" (p. 219).
In the final analysis Dobel presents a cogent and compelling approach for achieving the necessary coherency that facilitates ethical decision-making that is both responsive and accountable in an otherwise ambiguous environment. His focus is clear, concise and practical, packed with sophisticated reasoning and illustrative insights, but falls short on specific policy recommendations. Public Integrity provides a moral compass to navigate the difficult terrain of politics and public office, a guidebook that can be used to enhance the personal integrity of individuals holding or desiring of public office.
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