Combating Corruption, Encouraging Ethics: A Practical Guide to Management Ethics

About the Book

In their second edition of Combating Corruption, Encouraging Ethics, William L. Richter and Frances Burke update this essential staple to delve deeply into the unique ethical problems of twenty-first century public administration. Wide-ranging readings from Aristotle and Kant to John Kennedy and John T. Noonan provide initiation into the philosophical basis of ethics as virtue, consequence, principle, and responsibility, while new case studies drawn from today's headlines join old classics from the previous edition to help students apply ethical foundations to a modern administrative career. New chapters on privacy, secrecy, and confidentiality and the changing boundaries of public administration consider the consequences of computerization and globalization, two of this century's greatest challenges.

By seamlessly melding theory with practice, Richter and Burke have created a key resource in educating future public administrators on the ethical problems associated with corruption, deception, evasion of accountability, and the abuse of authority. Open-ended examples and discussion questions encourage students to understand the complexity of administrative ethics and the need for careful thought in their day-to-day decisions. Combating Corruption, Encouraging Ethics offers both the depth demanded by graduate courses in administrative ethics and the accessibility necessary for an undergraduate introduction to public administration.

Table of Contents:

Part 1 Ethical Foundations: Virtue, Consequence, Principle
Chapter 2 Virtue, Habit, and Ethics
Chapter 3 On Virtue
Chapter 4 The Prince
Chapter 5 Utilitarianism
Chapter 6 Principle: The Categorical Imperative
Chapter 7 The Ethical Triangle
Chapter 8 Case 1: Gyges' Ring
Chapter 9 Discussion Questions
Chapter 10 For Further Exploration
Part 11 Responsibility and Accountability
Chapter 12 The Study of Administration
Chapter 13 Politics as a Vocation
Chapter 14 The Friedrich-Finer Debate: Public Policy and Nature of Administrative Responsibility
Chapter 15 The Friedrich-Finer Debate: Administrative Responsibility in Democratic Government
Chapter 16 Ethics and the Public Service
Chapter 17 Accountability and Abuses of Power in World Politics
Chapter 18 Case 2: Following Orders
Chapter 19 Discussion Questions
Chapter 20 For Further Exploration
Part 21 Twenty-First Century Challenges: Global Dimensions/Changing Boundaries
Chapter 22 The New Public Administrator
Chapter 23 Megaprojects and Risk
Chapter 24 The World We Could Win
Chapter 25 The CAUX Round Table Principles
Chapter 26 Balance Between Electronic Access and Privacy Rights
Chapter 27 Case 3: Integrity at the United Nations
Chapter 28 Discussion Questions
Chapter 29 For Further Exploration
Part 30 Understanding Fraud, Waste, and Corrupt Practices
Chapter 31 An Organizational Perspective on Corruption
Chapter 32 Corruption and Governance
Chapter 33 What is Corruption?
Chapter 34 Fighting Corruption Globally
Chapter 35 Corruption in the Not-for-Profit Sector
Chapter 36 Case 4: The Adjunct Professor
Chapter 37 Discussion Questions
Chapter 38 For Further Exploration
Part 39 Graft, Bribery and Conflict of Interest
Chapter 40 Honest Graft and Dishonest Graft
Chapter 41 Struggling against Bribery
Chapter 42 Conflict of Interest in Nonprofit Ethics
Chapter 43 Extremism in the Search for Virtue
Chapter 44 Case 5: The Gift of a Carpet
Chapter 45 Discussion Questions
Chapter 46 For Further Exploration
Part 47 Lying, Cheating and Deception
Chapter 48 Lies for the Public Good
Chapter 49 Lying in the Public Interest
Chapter 50 Plausible Deniability
Chapter 51 Distorting Scientific Research
Chapter 52 Case 6: Greater Good versus Falsification
Chapter 53 Discussion Questions
Chapter 54 For Further Exploration
Part 55 Privacy, Secrecy and Confidentiality
Chapter 56 Secrecy in the Bush Administration
Chapter 57 Privacy in the United States and the European Union
Chapter 58 HIPAA Compliance
Chapter 59 USA PATRIOT Act: Privacy v. Security
Chapter 60 Not Just a Driver's License
Chapter 61 Case 7: 'Outing' Agents and Protecting Sources
Chapter 62 Discussion Questions
Chapter 63 For Further Exploration
Part 64 Abuse of Authority and Administrative Evil
Chapter 65 The Malek Manual
Chapter 66 The Banality of Evil
Chapter 67 Torture as Public Policy
Chapter 68 What about Evil?
Chapter 69 History As Cause: Columbia and Challenger
Chapter 70 Case 8: When the County Knows Best?
Chapter 71 Discussion Questions
Chapter 72 For Further Exploration
Part 73 Establishing Expectations, Providing Guidelines and Building Trust
Chapter 74 Maintaining Government Integrity
Chapter 75 The Investors' Advocate
Chapter 76 Trust in Government: Ethics Measures in OECD Countries
Chapter 77 Data Regulation: Measuring Governance and Corruption
Chapter 78 Maximizing Trust, Minimizing Conflicts
Chapter 79 Batho Pele Principles and Service Delivery
Chapter 80 The ASPA Code of Ethics
Chapter 81 Are You an Ethical Public Official?
Chapter 82 Case 9: Legal, Wrong, or Morally Required?
Chapter 83 Discussion Questions
Chapter 84 For Further Exploration
Part 85 Transparency, Whistle Blowing and Dissent
Chapter 86 Dealing with Dissent: Learning to Listen
Chapter 87 The Ethical Importance of Resigning
Chapter 88 Protecting the Whistleblower
Chapter 89 Circumscribed Protection: The Ceballos Case
Chapter 90 Ethics, Transparency International and the Private Sector
Chapter 91 Case 10: What is a Whistle-Blower To Do?
Chapter 92 Discussion Questions
Chapter 93 For Further Exploration
Part 94 Compliance, Oversight and Sanctions
Chapter 95 Government Accountability
Chapter 96 SEC and Oversight
Chapter 97 Funding GASB after Sarbanes-Oxley
Chapter 98 Governmental Nonprofit Oversight
Chapter 99 Hurricane Relief Oversight
Chapter 100 Case 11: Ignorance or Insider Trading?
Chapter 101 Discussion Questions
Chapter 102 For Further Exploration
Part 103 Leadership and Individual Responsibility: Encouraging Ethics
Chapter 104 Ethics Advice to a New Public Servant
Chapter 105 The Moral Responsibility of Individuals in Public Sector Organizations
Chapter 106 Eliot Spitzer as a Moral Exemplar
Chapter 107 As a City upon a Hill
Chapter 108 Case 12: Mayors as Exemplars?
Chapter 109 Discussion Questions
Chapter 110 For Further Exploration

About the Author :
William L. Richter is professor of political science at Kansas State University. He teaches International Politics of South Asia, Administrative Ethics, and Political Thought. Frances Burke is professor emerita at Sawyer Business School, Suffolk University, and president of Integrity International/Boston.

Review :
William Richter and Frances Burke have gathered an excellent set of materials—many of them new in this edition—focused on an important set of ethical issues that confront citizens in the United States and abroad. I expect the readings to stimulate spirited discussion in the classroom—and in the wider world, where pressures to shade the truth and to seek personal profit, while undermining the public trust, can seem at times overwhelming. The book may find its greatest use in public administration classes and as a resource for Human Resources trainers. The thoughtful introductory essays and the careful editing of the readings to eliminate the unnecessary will also make the book inviting to any public administrators who wish to reflect upon and improve their profession in addition to working in it. Burke and Richter, in revising their first edition of Combating Corruption, Encouraging Ethics, have put together a first-rate compendium of ethical and moral insights. They juxtapose classical analyses of virtue and prudent public behavior with contemporary problems in a way that encourages students to engage these important ethical issues. The issues they raise in the text are as old as Aristotle and as new as 9/11, and the carefully chosen scholarly analyses and case studies challenge students to think for themselves. If you want a comprehensive survey of ethics and public service, this is it.