American society of public administration code of ethics

James H. Svara is visiting professor

in the School of Government at the

University of North Carolina and former

professor in the School of Public Affairs at

Arizona State University (ASU). He served

as co-chair (with James Nordin) of the

Working Group to Revise the ASPA Code

of Ethics (2011–13) and chair of the Ad

Hoc Committee on Implementation of the

ASPA Code (2013–14). Support for these

activities was provided by the Lincoln

Center for Applied Ethics at ASU.

E-mail: james.svara@sog.unc.edu

Who Are the Keepers of the Code? Articulating and Upholding Ethical Standards in the Field of Public Administration 561

Public Administration Review,

Vol. 74, Iss. 5, pp. 561–569. © 2014 by

The American Society for Public Administration.

DOI: 10.1111/puar.12230.

James H. Svara Arizona State University

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Establishing a code of ethics has been a challenge in public administration. Ethics is central to the practice of administration, but the broad fi eld of public administra- tion has had diffi culty articulating clear and meaning- ful standards of behavior and developing a means of upholding a code of ethics. Although a number of special- ized professional associations in public service adopted codes, starting with the International City/County Management Association in 1924 and others after 1960, the full range of public administrators did not have an association to represent them until the American Society for Public Administration (ASPA) was founded in 1939. Despite early calls for a code of ethics in ASPA, the fi rst code was adopted in 1984, with revisions in 1994, but neither code had a process for enforcement. A new code approved in 2013 builds on the earlier codes and increases the prospects for ASPA to work with other pro- fessional associations to broaden awareness of the ethical responsibilities to society of all public administrators.

It has long been recognized that ethics is inte-gral to public administration. Although ethical behavior is not always achieved at the individual or organizational level, it is obvious that an essential element of administration is missing when unethical behavior occurs. Still, establishing clear and mean- ingful standards to guide behavior has been diffi cult for the practitioners and scholars who make up the fi eld. Although specialized groups of administrators that organized themselves as professional associa- tions developed codes of ethics, starting with the International City/County Management Association (ICMA) 90 years ago, the profession more gener- ally, as represented by a diverse membership asso- ciation such as the American Society for Public Administration (ASPA), was slow in adopting a code of eth- ics. Th is article examines the shifting attitudes about codes of ethics in public administration and the progression of ASPA’s code of ethics as a study of the challenges of developing a set

of enforceable standards for a large and heterogeneous group of practitioners. Understanding the issues and challenges that have infl uenced the development of ethical standards for administrators can contribute to advancing our understanding of ethics and improve the prospects for eff ectively implementing a code of ethics that applies broadly to public service positions.

After calls for establishing a code for the profession of public administration starting in the late 1930s, ASPA—the association created in 1939 with the intention of organizing the fi eld—did not act and was often criticized for its failure to approve a code of eth- ics until its forty-fi fth year. Th e ICMA code of ethics was off ered as an example of what might be created for public administration generally (Mosher 1938), but for decades, scholars and practitioners in public administration generally viewed codes negatively and gave little attention to the study or promotion of ethics (Cooper 1994). ASPA did not take formal actions to advance ethical codes within the fi eld until the 1970s. Th e questions of whether to have a code of ethics and what it should contain have been central to the debate about whether public administration is a profession as opposed to a collection of professions with vague, shared values (Mosher 1968; Pugh 1988).

Th e fi rst code of ethics adopted by ASPA in 1984 was an important step that established fundamental standards shared by public administrators. It was revised in 1994 with reorganization and clarifi cation of the sources of ethical standards. A new version was approved in 2013 that broadened the scope of values and standards for administrators who serve the public across fi elds and levels of government and other sectors.

Th e debate over the appropri- ateness, content, and imple- mentation of a code of ethics for public administration is examined in this article. Th ere were shared values in the public administration community

Who Are the Keepers of the Code? Articulating and Upholding Ethical Standards in the Field

of Public Administration

Th e debate over the appropriateness, content, and implementation of a code of

ethics for public administration is examined.

562 Public Administration Review • September | October 2014

Th e long absence of a code in ASPA and complaints about taking too narrow an approach to developing a code (Chandler 1982, 1983) have led some to conclude that adopting broad ethical standards was a diffi cult departure from earlier thinking in the fi eld that stressed a narrow “technical-rational” approach to administra- tive practice (Adams and Balfour 1998; Pugh 1991). Th e traditional approaches to the theory and practice of public administration, however, were rooted in a broad range of public-serving values.1 As Lewis and Gilman put it, “ethics is more accurately seen as a renewal rather than a radical departure from traditional practice” (2012, 11).

Ethical Values and Standards in Public Administration Th e moral dimension of public administration has deep historical roots. Duty was stressed by Plato (French 1983), virtue by Aristotle (Cooper 1987; Hart 1984), and honesty and respect for cultural values by Confucius (Gladden 1972, 149–50). Many of the values that were promoted in modern American public administration were intrinsic to the fi eld from the eighteenth century onward as developed in Europe (Lynn 2006; Rutgers 1997)—values that refl ect standards for internal administrative performance as well as larger ethical and social values. Th e founders of the federal govern- ment expected administrators to be “public spirited” (Bowman and West 2011, 33), and these same values were explicitly advanced by the reformers of the late nineteenth century (Richardson and Nigro 1987, 368). It is noteworthy that the Congress in 1884, after pas- sage of the Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act in 1883, adopted the oath to be taken by executive branch employees that is still used today (5 U.S.C. § 3331) (OPM n.d.). Administrators in the federal government are not simply expected to passively or obediently discharge the duties of their offi ce; they pledge to uphold the U.S. Constitution and advance its purposes (Rohr 1989, 69–70).

Values in “Traditional” Public Administration Th e fi eld of public administration in the fi rst half of the twentieth century developed more fully the expectation that administrators would demonstrate values that support their shared mission to serve the public and elevate the performance of government. It is com- mon, however, to portray these early administrators as technocrats (Adams and Balfour 1998) who were “value-free” (Henry 1975, 379–80), with an overwhelming commitment to promoting effi - ciency (Waldo 1948, 200) and no interest in promoting democracy (Waldo 1948, 73–74; Waldo 1952, 85). In Pugh’s view, “the cast of mind that dominated this fi eld was essentially bureaucratic” (1989, 2). It is important to recognize that even traditional administrative values such as effi ciency, expertise, and accountability serve a larger social purpose. Th ey take on a “moral character” by promoting “fair- ness, justice, avoidance of favoritism, and the consideration of all relevant interests,” as well as “a commitment to stewardship of the public’s resources through expert management to assure economy, effi ciency, and eff ectiveness” (Denhardt 1989, 188).