1st Edition

Common Ground, Common Future Moral Agency in Public Administration, Professions, and Citizenship

By Charles Garofalo, Dean Geuras Copyright 2006

    Common Ground, Common Future: Moral Agency in Public Administration, Professions, and Citizenship examines the public and private roles of the citizen as a moral agent. The authors define this agent as a person who recognizes morality as a motive for action, and not only follows moral principles but also acknowledges morality as his or her principal. The book explains that public administration is a fundamentally moral enterprise that exists to serve the values that society considers significant, and that this moral nature makes public administration a prototype for other professions to emulate, a model of moral governance in American society.

    The title reflects the book's principal purpose and abiding hope: the development of a broad perspective on our individual and collective roles and responsibilities as citizens, professionals, and moral beings, with a recognition of mutual obligations to the large and small challenges inherent in the process of governance.

    The Moral Agent, Moral Organization, and the Public
    Administrator
    What Is a Moral Agent?
    The Special Ethical Aspects of Public Organizations
    Citizenship and Public Administration
    The Ethical Environment of Public Administration
    The Need for Ethical Reasoning in Public Administration
    Moral Agency, the Public Administrator, and the Private Citizen

    Moral Agency in the Public Sector
    The Ideal Public Administrator
    The Legislator's Moral Agency
    Conflicts of Obligations
    Bending and Breaking the Rules
    Moral Whistle-Blowing
    The Ideal and the Real

    Ethical Breakdowns in Public Administration
    Insufficient Commitment
    Excessive Commitment to Goals
    Moral Dilemmas
    The Public Administrator as Strong Evaluator

    Ethics in Business
    CSR
    Opponents of CSR
    Proponents of CSR
    Discussion
    Perspectives on Government
    Conclusion

    Managed Care
    Origins and Structure of Managed Care
    Moral Challenges of Managed Care
    Alternative Perspectives on Managed Care

    The Legal Profession
    The Client's Interest and the Interests of Justice
    Moral Obligations Common to the Legal Profession
    The Legal Profession and Public Service
    Civil Law
    Attorneys Committed to Causes
    Conclusion

    Higher Education
    Ethics in the Academy: Level 1
    Ethics in the Academy: Level 2
    University-Government Partnerships
    University-Business Partnerships
    Intercollegiate Athletics
    Conclusion

    Unifying Ethical Theory
    Traditional Ethical Theories
    The Unity of the Absolutist Theories
    The Kantian Legislator in the Kingdom of Ends and the Moral Agent
    The Unified Ethic, Communitarianism, and Individualism
    Rawls and the Unified Ethic

    Applying the Unified Ethic to Moral Agency
    The Moral Agent as Morally Responsible Citizen
    Insufficient Commitment to Moral Values
    Transformation and Reconfiguration
    Moral Agency in Business
    Use of Foreign, Low-Wage Labor
    Should Tobacco Companies Exist?
    The Moral Exemplarship of the Private Executive
    Moral Agency and the Attorney
    Encouraging the Process of Moral Agency in the Health Professions
    Higher Education in the Context of the Kingdom of Ends

    The Public Agent as Exemplar for the Private Professional:
    A Dialogue
    Points of Agreement
    Geuras: The Public Administrator as Citizen Exemplar Model
    Does Not Fully Apply to the Private Sector
    Garofalo's Response
    Summary

    Common Ground, Common Future
    Introduction
    Requirements for Reform
    Conclusion

    Biography

    Charles Garofalo, Dean Geuras