Ethics and Public Service

There is widespread concern for ethics in government, and news reports justify that concern. The public's emphasis, fueled by both accurate and inaccurate reporting, appears to center upon the conduct of elected officials. Some of that reporting is significant, and some is trivial. Professional literature tends to concentrate upon the bureaucracy. This article traces the history in general of ethical thought regarding public service in America and sketches attempts to require adherence to ethical standards. It concludes that—with notable exceptions and despite considerable insightful work from ethicists—the strongest reactions have often come in response to relatively trivial infractions and that prescriptions tend to be entirely negative. Such negative approaches are unlikely to result in significant improvement of ethics in public service, whether judged by standards of personal conduct or the even more important standard of institutional performance and integrity.