Comparative Public Administration Ethics
	Ethics and New Public Management Ethics and Leadership Health Care Ethics Comparative Public Administration Ethics Organizational Ethics Ethics and Law Enforcement Code of Ethics Technology Professional Ethics Race, Equality, Public Interest and Rights Spiritually in the Workplace Abortion Ethics Training and Education Environment Poverty		Rather than just considering Western public administration, comparative public administration is a comparison of different countries with respect to the founding principles of the political system, the electoral system, political parties, interest organizations, governments, public administration and policy processes. If you would like a topic discussed or have information you would like to provide, please email Rod Erakovich or Vicki Edwards. We look forward to hearing from you. Books Articles Links & Websites Books Return to Top Where Corruption Lives Edited by Gerald E. Caiden, University of Southern California; O.P. Dwivedi, University of Guelph, Canada; Joseph Jabbra Loyola Marymount University Where Corruption Lives presents an up to date and comprehensive global survey of the presence of official corruption in governance. It links theoretical perspectives to common practices found throughout the world, examining liberal democracies with relatively clean governance as well as autocracies where corruption is institutionalized. The contributors explore initiatives being taken by national governments and international organizations to combat and reduce corrupt practices, and assess their chances of success or failure. No comparable study of official corruption exists, making this book essential reading for students of comparative politics, public administration, and public ethics. http://www.kpbooks.com/details.asp?title=Where+Corruption+Lives Administrative Ethics and Development By Jean-Claude Garcia-Zamor , University Press of America, January 2002. Most critical issues of government and public administration involve ethical dilemmas. Policy decisions by bureaucrats in both the industrialized countries and the developing ones are often made in the context of conflicting ethical and moral issues. Administrative ethics is a system of rules enforced by such administrative sanctions as demotion and firing, as opposed to rules enforced by such civil or criminal sanctions as monetary penalties or imprisonment. This book illustrates how the weakness of public-sector institutions in developing countries has deprived these nations of the capability to perform these functions and how sound administrative ethics can strengthen these institutions. Administrative Ethics and Development establishes a clear and vital connection between administrative ethics, successful modern economies, and good democratic governments in both the industrialized and the developing countries. Jean-Claude Garcia-Zamor is Professor of Public Administration at Florida International University. http://www.univpress.com/ Articles Return to Top Can There Be An Ethical Foreign Policy? David M. Condron, Journal of Power and Ethics: An Interdisciplinary Review. 2000 (1), 3 In human communication, the zeitgeist, or spirit of the age, shapes how a message is understood. In our own culture, the intellectual climate is one of skepticism. Moral and religious reasons for political decisions are increasingly criticized as irrelevant because postmodernism has deconstructed the Judeo-Christian ethic for American society. This poses a significant problem for public officials charged with the governance of our nation. Every action is scrutinized for some potential "hidden agenda" and motives are routinely questioned. Some of this is, of course, part of living in a democracy, which values diversity of opinion. What has become almost crippling to the formulation of coherent foreign policy is the inability of the U.S. Government to make a compelling case for continuing world leadership to the American people. http://spaef.com/JPE_PUB/1_3/v1n3_condron.html Re-Educating Humankind: Globalizing the Curriculum and Teaching International Ethics for the New Century Roseann Runte Higher Education in Europe. Publisher: Carfax Publishing Company, part of the Taylor & Francis Group. Issue: Volume 26, Number 1/January 1, 2001, Pages: 39 - 46 Nations, cultures, languages - all are converging in this globalizing world of the early Twenty-First Century, giving individuals both a feeling of powerlessness and a sense of infinite possibilities. A new ethics of globalization is needed. The best way to create such an ethics is through education. The author proposes several means by which students at all levels of education can achieve global awareness on a personalized basis, in particular, through two university-level courses. These would be required, respectively, of entering university freshmen and of exiting graduating seniors, to be taught simultaneously in networks of higher education institutions all over the world. These courses would focus on global awareness and on the local solution of globally relevant problems. Much of the feasibility of the simultaneous global delivery of such courses would depend on the deft use of the Internet and, in general, of the information and communication technologies. Re-Educating Humankind: Globalizing the Curriculum and Teaching International Ethics for the New Century Global Ethics for the 21st Century: Theory and Social Reality Environmental Justice in A Globalised World Prof. Nigel Dower, University of Aberdeen, Scotland (phl001@abdn.ac.uk) It is important to recognise that a "global" or "world" ethic can refer to two quite separate things: (a) an ethical theory espoused by a thinker or group according to which there are some universal values/norms and global responsibilities; (b) a set of values/norms/duties embodied, as part of global social reality, in practices, institutions, shared or agreed codes, beliefs and traditions. There are many different ethical theories, and also a number of different public sets of norms (e.g. Human rights culture, the norms of the "morality of states", values underlying the global economy). Global Ethics for the 21st Century: Theory and Social Reality Environmental Justice in A Globalised World COLPI Papers 1: Fighting Corruption through Education This paper has been developed with the aim of assisting COLPI in identifying and formulating a new pro g ram line in anti-corruption measures that include a public awareness and/or an educational component, where these measures are not already covered in existing OSI pro g ram lines. http://www.osi.hu/colpi/files/colpi1.pdf Ethics & International Affairs: Volume 12, Table of Contents (1998) Postmodern Ethics and the Critical Challenge by Neta Crawford (Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst) International ethics scholars have argued that because postmodern, poststructural, and critical theorists view ethics as contextual, these approaches have little to offer to the consideration of ethics and international affairs. However, an examination of ethical issues through postmodern and critical perspectives reveals that these approaches are not as nihilistic as their critics contend. Postmodern, feminist, poststructural, and Frankfurt School theories provide insight and direction to students of international ethics by providing the theoretical foundations for discourse ethics. The essay contends that discourse ethics offers a procedural program for addressing urgent ethical dilemmas in world politics, concluding that the likelihood of peace and justice is greatly increased when the urge to ground ethics in Enlightenment certainty is abandoned. Humanitarian Intervention: An Overview of the Ethical Issues by Michael J. Smith (Associate Professor of Government and Foreign Affairs at the University of Virginia) The capacity to focus on the issues of humanitarian intervention signals the maturation of the field of ethics and international affairs. Interventions in Bosnia, Rwanda, Haiti, and Somalia, for example, indicate a new willingness on the part of the international community to involve itself in the internal affairs of states. However, acts of humanitarian intervention bring with them concerns of consistency and effectiveness, which require deep attention and careful response. Issues of state sovereignty versus moral imperatives continue to challenge external actors. This essay discusses the subjective and objective changes that have occurred within international relations with regard to humanitarian intervention and examines intervention from the realist and liberal theoretical perspectives. Using traditional liberalist theory as a basis, the essay offers a new version of liberalism in which the historic guarantee of state sovereignty becomes subordinate to human rights claims, thereby supplying a justification for humanitarian intervention. Toward a Moral System for World Society: A Reflection on Human Responsibilities by Mary Maxwell (President of the South Australian branch of the Australian Institute of International Affairs) A group of statesmen, known as the InterAction Council, in consultation with theologians and philosophers representing many cultures, has come up with a proposed Universal Declaration of Human Responsibilities. It contains rules of behavior for all people based on what its authors believe to be a global consensus centering on the Golden Rule. In unveiling a global ethic, the council has, perhaps unwittingly, opened up the so-far-neglected question of what a complete moral system for world society would look like. This essay analyses the Declaration and its related report with regard to two areas: its ecumenical religious basis and its theme of responsibility, with particular attention to the question of balance between rights and responsibilities. The question is then asked: Does a global ethic imply community? An answer to this question is sought by examining Richard Alexander's new biological theory, which presents ethics as a means of pursuing interests through collectivity. The text of the Universal Declaration of Human Responsibilities is appended. http://www.carnegiecouncil.org/lib_volume12.html ETHICS OR CORRUPTION? Building a Landscape for Ethics Training in Southeastern Europe by Rodney Erakovich, Ph.D. Candidate, University of Texas at Arlington, Arlington, Texas; Dragoljub Kavran, Professor and President, Civil Service Council, Government of Serbia; and Sherman M. Wyman, Professor, School of Urban and Public Affairs, University of Texas at Arlington. The fall of Milosevic's regime in Serbia, the last country with neo-communist government in Southeastern Europe (SEE) poses a great new challenge for the region of more than 100 million people. Four consecutive wars had created opportunities for smuggling, corruption, bribery and graft in and around war zones. Countries in the region suffered not only from various ethnic-cleansing actions and its consequences but also from illegal activities of criminal elements associated with instability and confusion. Under current conditions, corruption may be seen as a way to overcome the uncertainties of a weak state and a poorly developed market economy. Many SEE countries have been slow to develop clear positions on conflict of interest. In some cases elected politicians engage in commercial activities that may benefit from the laws they enact. ETHICS OR CORRUPTION? National Security and Values That Transcend National Borders R. M. Bittick, Ph.D. California State University Dominguez Hills Department of Public Administration The terrorist attacks against the United States on September 11th were of a global nature in two different ways. First, the attacks showed that individuals and small organizations have access to power formerly restricted to nation-states. Second, the values of the terrorists which drive this power transcends national borders. National Security and Values That Transcend National Borders Ethics & International Affairs: Volume 13, Table of Contents (1999) Reckoning with Past Wrongs: A Normative Framework David A. Crocker This essay formulates eight goals that have emerged from worldwide moral deliberation on "transitional justice" and that may serve as a useful framework when particular societies consider how they should reckon with violations of internationally recognized human rights. These goals include truth, a public platform for victims, accountability and punishment, the rule of law, compensation to victims, institutional reform and long-term development, reconciliation, and public deliberation. These eight goals are used to identify and clarify (1) the variety of ethical issues that emerge in reckoning with past wrongs, (2) widespread agreements about initial steps for resolving each issue, (3) leading options for more robust solutions of each issue, and (4) ways to weight or trade off the norms when they conflict. The aim is to show that there are crucial moral aspects in reckoning with the past and to clarify, criticize, revise, apply, and diffuse eight moral norms. These goals are not a "one-size-fits-all" blueprint but rather a framework by which societies confronting past atrocities can decide--through cross-cultural and critical dialogue--what is most important to accomplish and the morally best ways to do so. A Different Kind of Justice: Dealing with Human Rights Violations in Transitional Societies David Little In "transitional societies" like South Africa and Bosnia, which are currently moving from authoritarianism, and often violent repression, to democracy, questions arise about the appropriate way to deal with serious human rights offenders. Will a system of retributive justice bring about the healing and harmony necessary for peace and stability? Or, is "a different kind of justice" required, one explicitly aimed at reconciliation, and designed to repair and restore relations, and, perhaps, to forgive offenders rather than prosecute them? Are the systems mutually exclusive, or can they be combined in some way? In an effort to clarify terms and sharpen practical choices, this essay distinguishes between retributive and restorative justice and relates the distinction to constructive proposals concerning the ideas of forgiveness and reconciliation. The essay then applies the proposed framework to two recent efforts to cope with the problem: the truth and reconciliation commissions of South Africa and Bosnia and Herzegovina. A Peaceful, Silent, Deadly Remedy: The Ethics of Economic Sanctions Joy Gordon Joy Gordon has made a major contribution to both the ethical analysis and the policy evaluation of economic sanctions. But her claims against sanctions should be understood as critique rather than condemnation and rejection of sanctions on ethical grounds. Through a series of arguments and examples, this response points out that Gordon may be too narrow in defining sanctions' success, and that, where sanctions have gone awry, it is because they were unimaginatively formulated and poorly implemented, not because sanctions are categorically unethical. Multilateral sanctions in the late 1990s are simply more finely tuned than a few years ago. As a technique of coercive diplomacy, sanctions are meant to change dramatically the costs and benefits that leaders of a nation calculate operate in their favor as they pursue policies that the majority of the international community have declared abhorrent. We can, with the help of Gordon's critical claims, accomplish this goal in a more ethical manner, and by so doing, increase the likely success of sanctions in the future. More Ethical than Not: Sanctions as Surgical Tools Response to "A Peaceful, Silent, Deadly Remedy" George A. Lopez A group of statesmen, known as the InterAction Council, in consultation with theologians and philosophers representing many cultures, has come up with a proposed Universal Declaration of Human Responsibilities. It contains rules of behavior for all people based on what its authors believe to be a global consensus centering on the Golden Rule. In unveiling a global ethic, the council has, perhaps unwittingly, opened up the so-far-neglected question of what a complete moral system for world society would look like. This essay analyses the Declaration and its related report with regard to two areas: its ecumenical religious basis and its theme of responsibility, with particular attention to the question of balance between rights and responsibilities. The question is then asked: Does a global ethic imply community? An answer to this question is sought by examining Richard Alexander's new biological theory, which presents ethics as a means of pursuing interests through collectivity. The text of the Universal Declaration of Human Responsibilities is appended. Human Rights NGO's: The Power of Persuasion William Korey At the end of World War II, the phrase "human rights" was virtually unknown, whether in the media, in standard textbooks, or as a guideline for state conduct in the emerging international community. It was nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) that made the phrase a core element of the United Nations Charter in 1944, even as they pressed for the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted three years later. This was but the beginning of a historic effort to make the Declaration a fundamental standard for measuring progress in civilized society. If the principal motivation was the prevention of another Holocaust, NGOs would fulfill the indispensable function, projected by Eleanor Roosevelt, of serving as the "curious grapevine" that would enlighten everyone about their rights and channel information about human rights violations to the world community. This essay is about the "curious grapevine," an extraordinary tale of how NGOs, through their persuasion, have made human rights a major item in international discourse in the media, state chancelleries, and international institutions. NGOs have played the leading role in the creation of international standards and in establishing legally binding treaties incorporating these standards. They are central to the process of adopting implementing organs to these treaties and in providing the essential documentation and briefings to make these organs work. Distributive Justice and International Trade Ethan B. Kapstein Public officials frequently assert that nations shape their own economic destiny. This statement implies that the international economy presents a level playing field for all participants. If the rules of globalization were somehow written in favor of certain countries, however, that would not be true, and the legitimacy of the economic system would be cast in doubt. This essay examines the structure of the international trade regime. Following John Rawls, it asserts that "justice is the first virtue of social institutions." This leads to the question: Is the trade regime just? The essay seeks to answer that question through both a theoretical and empirical exploration of the trading system. Building on the Rawlsian "original position," it sketches the fundamental principles that would underlie such a regime. It then traces the history of North-South trade relations as a case study. The essay concludes by suggesting that concerns with the trade regime's normative framework have played an important role in shaping its basic principles. But that does not mean that the regime is just. Greater transfers from North to South would be one of the major requirements of justice that currently are not being met. http://www.carnegiecouncil.org/lib_volume13.html Ethics & International Affairs: Volume 14, Table of Contents (2000) International Organizations and the Pursuit of Justice in the World Economy Steven Weber Evaluating the role of international organizations (IOs) in promoting social justice in a globalizing international political economy, this essay presents and defends four propositions: IOs are in a different, and more vulnerable, political space vis-à-vis globalization than are nation-states, firms, nongovernmental organizations, or labor unions; Central perceptions about problems of social justice in the context of globalization common to many IOs are a product of the history and intellectual trajectory in which these organizations have evolved; As a result, there is a common theme and a core set of objectives at play, having to do with promoting and sustaining liberalization. That is obviously not the same thing as social justice, although in some intellectual frameworks there is a tight relationship; and The ability of IOs to promote these goals has been challenged and will continue to be challenged by globalization. The essay concludes by arguing that IOs are suffering a loss of legitimacy, and that both social and technological changes associated with globalization will make it harder for IOs to recapture the power to affect the behavior of other actors in world politics. Globalization, Justice, and International Institutions: A Commentary Mark W. Zacher It is true that international institutions do not command the primary loyalty among the peoples of the world that would allow them the opportunity to legislate in favor of social justice. They do, however, command strong political backing from the most important political actors in world politics - namely, states. In addition, virtually all international organizations integrate nongovernmental organizations into their deliberative processes. Present globalization trends are increasing economic disparities between and within countries, but most regimes do provide poorer states with special provisions that can be used to protect their economic interests. Also, some have clearly benefited from economic openness. In the long term, it will be surprising if states do not address the problem of growing economic gaps through international regimes, although the likely adequacy of their responses is open to question. John Rawls, "The Law of Peoples," and International Political Theory Chris Brown (Review essay of A Theory of Justice, Political Liberalism, Collected Papers, and The Law of Peoples, by John Rawls) John Rawls is the most influential English-language political philosopher of the second half of the twentieth century - indeed, perhaps since John Stuart Mill. His influence rests partly on the very format of his masterwork, A Theory of Justice. But Theory is a flawed and incomplete masterpiece, and the "Rawls industry" that has developed around his work has been stimulated by these imperfections. Indeed, Rawls himself has corrected and elaborated upon his original formulations in a series of essays compiled in Political Liberalism and his recent Collected Papers. One of the most controversial features of Theory concerns its handling of international issues; Rawls turned to this question explicitly in an Amnesty International Lecture of 1993, "The Law of Peoples" (published in his Collected Papers), which he has now extended into a monograph with the same title. The latter is the main focus of this essay, which also includes a sketch of Rawls's project as a whole as a necessary preliminary. The Use and Abuse of "Holy War" Khaled Abou El Fadl (Review essay of The Holy War Idea in Western and Islamic Traditions, by James Turner Johnson) Despite the fact that the idea of holy war is the unique product of European Christian culture, it is often used to project the Western normative experience onto cultures rooted in an entirely different set of socio-historical circumstances. This process is clearly observed in the way the West approaches the Islamic idea of jihad, which is often equated with holy war and mistakenly considered synonymous with Islamic violence. James Turner Johnson's The Holy War Idea in Western and Islamic Traditions is a refreshing effort to alleviate the misunderstanding and hostility toward the concept of jihad. Yet scholars such as Johnson will continue to be unable to properly assess the Islamic tradition or its full potential because of the paucity of serious secondary works on the issue of Islam and war. The absence of quality studies on the micro-historical practices and discourses of Islamic jurists and rulers prevents the emergence of any accurate and sophisticated understanding of the totality of the Islamic experience. http://www.carnegiecouncil.org/lib_volume14.html Ethics & International Affairs: Volume 15 No. 1 (2001) Achieving Democracy Thomas Pogge Overcoming corruption and authoritarian government in developing countries is hampered by global institutional arrangements. In particular, international borrowing and resource privileges, which entitle those exercising power in a country to borrow in its name and to effect legally valid transfers of ownership rights in its resources, can be obstacles to achieving democracy. These international conventions greatly increase the incentives toward attempts at coups d'état, especially in countries with a large resource sector. In exploring how this problem might be highlighted and addressed, it is essential to understand that affluent societies have a great interest in upholding the prevailing institutional arrangements: Their banks benefit from their international lending and, far more importantly, their firms and people benefit greatly from cheap resource supplies. Institutional reform is more likely, then, to come from the developing countries. Thus, fledgling democracies may be able to improve their stability through constitutional amendments that bar future unconstitutional governments from borrowing in the country's name and from conferring ownership rights in its public property. Such amendments would render insecure the claims of those who lend to, or buy from, dictators, thus reducing the rewards of coups d'état. This strategy might be resisted by the more affluent societies, but such resistance could perhaps be overcome if many developing countries pursued the proposed strategy together, and if some moral support emerged among the citizenries of affluent societies. National Reconciliation, Transnational Justice, and the International Criminal Court Juan E. Méndez Universal jurisdiction and the existence of an International Criminal Court (ICC) under the Rome Statute provide a framework through which true reconciliation can be achieved simultaneously with truth and justice. The ICC and universal jurisdiction can be viewed as laying out objective limits on the power of domestic and international actors to seek peace at any cost. This paper argues that those objective limits are not necessarily inimical to a just peace, nor are an undue burden on peacemakers. On the contrary, they can set parameters whereby a just and lasting peace can be differentiated from impunity achieved through blackmail. The first step is to take a hard look at whether international standards of accountability for gross abuses have been met. At the same time, the examination of any specific scheme of domestic accountability cannot be done on a blanket basis. It will require a close look at conditions prevailing in the country, both at the time the scheme was adopted and later; at the policies adopted and how they were meant to advance the process of national reconciliation; at who adopted those measures and how; and at concrete applications of the scheme to individual cases. Even applying this exacting standard, there will be cases in which the best course of action for the ICC and for third country courts will be to defer to the greater wisdom of local actors operating in good faith, and to decline to prosecute. The Moral Rationale for International Fiscal Law Alexander W. Cappelen A country's right to levy taxes is a fundamental aspect of its sovereignty. Without the power to tax, a government would be unable to redistribute resources among its citizens and provide public goods. The question of how tax rights should be distributed is therefore one of the oldest and most important problems of tax theory. Increased international economic integration has made this question even more important, as a larger share of economic transactions take place across national borders, giving rise to situations in which more than one country is able to tax the same base. How such conflicts are resolved affects both the ability of countries to redistribute resources domestically and the international distribution of tax revenues. The allocation of tax rights therefore raises important questions of distributive justice, questions that require a normative theory of the right to tax. This essay seeks to evaluate the current distribution of tax rights by examining whether it can in fact be justified within the main approaches to distributive justice. Measuring Human Rights Kate Raworth The language of human rights is increasingly being advocated as a framework for policy dialogue. To make this feasible, indicators must be developed that help to hold the state accountable for its policies, that help to guide and improve policy, and that are sensitive to local contexts without sacrificing the commitment to the universality of rights. Can it be done? This article examines ongoing attempts to devise indicators and argues that they are not based in a sufficiently clear conceptual framework. It argues for greater intelligibility in devising indicators concerning what they should be assessing, how to reflect the universalism of rights across different contexts, and how to weigh the conflicts of interest that characterize the public policy decision-making process. http://www.carnegiecouncil.org/lib_volume15.html Ethics & International Affairs: Volume 15 No. 2 (2001) Why Inequality Matters: Some Economic Issues Nancy Birdsall Many industrialized countries, developing countries, and countries that have recently made the transition from communism to market-oriented economies are characterized by high and increasing income inequality. Trends in income inequality have been understood to have ethical significance for different reasons. Some have argued that lessening income inequality is a valuable goal in itself. This essay, on the other hand, focuses on three instrumental reasons for pursuing economic policies that engender less income inequality, particularly in developing countries. Inequality can inhibit growth and slow poverty reduction. Inequality often undermines the political process: that may lead to an inadequate social contract and may trigger bad economic policies-with ill effects on growth, human development, and poverty reduction. Inequality may undermine civic and social as well as political life, and inhibit certain kinds of collective decision-making; at the societal level, it may also generate its own self-justifying tolerance, perpetuating a high inequality equilibrium despite the potential economic and political costs. International Obligation and Human Health: Evolving Policy Responses to HIV/AIDS Paul Harris and Patricia Siplon The world is in the early stages of what will be the greatest health crisis in modern times. Millions of people-most of them in the world's poor countries-are infected with HIV. The vast majority of these people will suffer and die from AIDS. The extent of this problem presents profound moral and ethical questions for the world's wealthy people and countries, for it is they who are most able to assist the poor in addressing this tragedy. Nevertheless, developed countries have been very slow in responding to the international dimensions of this problem. They have instead focused on the relatively few people within their own borders at risk for HIV or suffering from AIDS, seemingly unwilling to recognize the greater challenges posed by the global spread of HIV. The rhetoric has started to change, but the developed countries have not backed this rhetoric with the substantial new and additional funds to assist the poor countries in coping with and reversing the global HIV/AIDS epidemic, and they continue to participate in activities that exacerbate the crisis and associated human suffering. This essay examines this moral problem in the context of North-South relations. It serves to highlight the need for much more international assistance from developed countries to help combat HIV and AIDS in the developing world. Prospects for Transnational Citizenship and Democracy Daniel Weinstock Many political theorists believe that the extension of democratic institutions beyond the nation-state would inevitably be deleterious to the possibility of meaningful citizenship and to the functioning of democratic institutions. It is argued here that many of the problems that would be faced in setting up transnational institutions mirror problems that have already been addressed by appropriate institutional mechanisms in the establishment of the modern nation-state. Assigning Responsibilities to Institutional Moral Agents: The Case of States and Quasi-States Toni Erskine Determining who, or indeed what, is to respond to prescriptions for action in cases of international crisis is a critical endeavor. Without such an allocation of responsibilities, calls to action - whether to protect the environment or to rescue distant strangers - lack specified agents, and, therefore, any meaningful indication of how they might be met. A fundamental step in arriving at this distribution of duties is identifying moral agents in international relations, or, in other words, identifying those bodies that can deliberate and act and thereby respond to ethical guidelines. Often, the most effective and relevant moral agents in international relations are not individuals but institutions. However, it is necessary to qualify any claim that institutions can bear duties in international relations. Not only must they possess capacities for decision-making and purposive action, they must also enjoy the conditions under which specific duties can be discharged. The importance of this latter stipulation can be usefully illustrated by examining the disparate circumstances within which states - those that exercise positive sovereignty and those that are sovereign only in name - are expected to act. Moral Agency and International Society Chris Brown There is no body that has the legal right to exercise agency on behalf of international society (IS), even though the notion of "society" encapsulated in IS is, in principle, close to that conveyed by bodies such as clubs and associations that can be represented by, for example, a board of directors or governing committee. Some have argued that the UN or the Security Council can exercise agency on behalf of IS, but in view of the "under institutionalization" of IS in the UN, a more interesting possibility is that groups of states may authorize themselves to act on the behalf of IS as "coalitions of the willing." However, the contrasting experience of the Gulf War of 1990/91 and the Kosovo campaign of 1999 suggest that the degree of ideological coherence of the coalition in question is an important variable here - in 1999, NATO was able with some plausibility to represent the wider international society because of its commitment to certain core democratic values, while in 1991 the Gulf War coalition could only act conservatively in restoring the status quo because of its diverse nature. The Anti-Sweatshop Movement: Constructing Corporate Moral Agency in the Global Apparel Industry Rebecca DeWinter This essay examines the impact of activist mobilization within the anti-sweatshop movement on shared understandings of corporate moral agency. The anti-sweatshop movement represents a transnational advocacy network, which arose in response to the global restructuring of the apparel industry and is organizing to demand that apparel manufacturers be accountable to communities, workers, and consumers. The movement has been central in contesting received notions of corporate rights and responsibilities and in reconstituting the boundaries of the corporate moral agent. Underpinning this investigation is a discussion of the ascription of moral agency to collective actors. With the aid of a relational approach, it is argued that corporate moral agency is a construct emerging out of social historical interactions that reflect processes through which the boundaries of actors are drawn and justified. Through the use of rhetoric linking private economic transactions and international labor and human rights standards, the movement has successfully challenged corporate practices that were previously considered unremarkable. Place-Based Environmentalism and Global Warming: Conceptual Contradictions of American Environmentalism Daniel Somers Smith This essay examines the pragmatic and ethical implications of traditional, "place-based" environmentalism for the issue of global climate change. Although American environmentalism has had considerable success in addressing threats to particular places and resources, this well-organized and enormously popular social movement has not resulted in effective action on the problem of global warming. This failure is especially striking given the possibility that climate change will seriously degrade the places that local environmentalists work so hard to protect. Drawing on both the history of environmentalism and a contemporary case study in the northeastern United States, I argue that a partial explanation lies in the internal contradictions of environmentalism itself. Of particular importance is its privileging of a supposedly pristine, non-human nature, which draws attention away from the more subtle material implications of routine behavior in this case, the burning of fossil fuels and emission of greenhouse gases. Also crucial is reliance on scientific prediction and technical management of ecosystems and natural resources, which suggests that solutions to global warming lie not in fundamental economic or behavioral changes, but in more efficient management of resources. By failing to re-examine these socially constructed assumptions and the ways in which they reinforce continued economic expansion and resource exploitation, traditional environmentalism can actually inhibit the sort of far-reaching reforms that may be needed to solve the problem of climate change. The essay explores the ethical implications of this situation, which are especially profound given the highly disproportionate contribution of the U.S. and other developed countries to greenhouse gas emissions, as well as the higher vulnerability to climate change of many poorer countries. It concludes with suggestions for alternative models of political action. Ethics & International Affairs: Volume 15 No. 2 (2001) Ethics & International Affairs: Volume 16, Volume 1, (2002) Identifying Limits on a Borderless Map Richard Falk Two requirements have governed my thinking about an appropriate response to the attacks of September 11: the urgent need for action that would greatly reduce the threat of future mega-terrorist incidents, and the necessity of recognizing the appropriate legal, moral, and political limits to waging a defensive war. In this essay, the need for action is taken for granted, given the gravity of the harm inflicted in the form of an armed attack, the persistence of the threat posed by the proclaimed intentions and apocalyptic leadership of Osama bin Laden, the demonstrated capability of al-Qaeda to carry out such missions, the dramatic failures of prior reliance on law enforcement techniques to apprehend and punish the perpetrators of major terrorist acts, and the inadequacy of intelligence warnings and preventive actions to provide societal protection. Comprehending "Evil": Challenges for Law and Policy Douglas Klusmeyer & Astri Suhrke In the aftermath of the attacks in New York and Washington on September 11, the categories of "good" and "evil" have come to dominate the rhetorical response of the U.S. government. This article investigates the implications of using the concept of "evil" as a major public policy rationale. The article focuses on the Bush Administration's attempts to frame its policy around this term in the current campaign against terrorism, but also considers recent uses of the term in the growing literature on war crimes, genocide, and domestic repression. Because the concept of evil has deep roots in various theological understandings, we examine its religious meanings (largely within the Christian tradition) and the problems that arise when applying it in the secular context of government policy. In assessing these problems, we focus on Hannah Arendt's efforts to comprehend the evils of totalitarianism within a secular perspective. The Moral Basis of Humanitarian Intervention Terry Nardin This article discusses the moral principles underlying the idea of humanitarian intervention. The analysis is in two parts, one historical and the other philosophical. First, the article examines arguments made in late medieval and early modern Europe for using armed force to punish the violation of natural law and to defend communities from tyranny and oppression, regardless of where they occur. It seeks to understand how moralists writing before the emergence of modern international law conceived what we now call humanitarian intervention. In the context of international law, humanitarian intervention is usually understood to be an exception to the nonintervention principle. However, the natural law tradition regards international law as less important than the moral imperative to punish wrongs and protect the innocent. Second, the article considers how humanitarian intervention is justified within the reformulation of the natural law tradition displayed in recent efforts to theorize morality along Kantian lines. In this reformulation, humanitarian intervention is a product of the duty of beneficence and, more specifically, of the right to use force to protect the innocent. NGO Strategies for Promoting Corporate Social Responsibility Morton Winston This article describes and evaluates the different strategies that have been employed by international human rights nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in attempting to influence the behavior of multinational corporations (MNCs). Within the NGO world, there is a basic divide on tactics for dealing with corporations: Engagers try to draw corporations into dialogue in order to persuade them by means of ethical and prudential arguments to adopt voluntary codes of conduct, while confronters believe that corporations will act only when their financial interests are threatened, and therefore take a more adversarial stance toward them. Confrontational NGOs tend to employ moral stigmatization, or "naming and shaming," as their primary tactic, while NGOs that favor engagement offer dialogue and limited forms of cooperation with willing MNCs. Corporate Codes of Conduct and the Success of Globalization S. Prakash Sethi This article focuses on the expanding role of multinational corporations (MNCs) in developing countries, within the context of globalization and free trade. It demonstrates that the current state of globalization does not conform to the conventional notion of free trade. Therefore, given the prevailing circumstances, MNCs have an unfair advantage in expropriating a greater share of gains from efficiency and productivity from international trade than would be possible if labor had greater mobility or more equitable bargaining power. The article presents evidence that the arguments advanced by MNCs in defense of their position are factually incorrect and logically flawed. Next, the article examines the efforts made by MNCs to ameliorate some of the adverse conditions arising from their overseas manufacturing and sourcing operations. The findings show that most of these efforts are more rhetorical than substantive. Finally, he outlines a framework that allows multinationals to undertake meaningful actions that would both minimize the adverse consequences of, and enhance the positive benefits emanating from their overseas operations. These actions must be independently verifiable and transparent if MNCs are to gain credibility and public trust. A failure to undertake meaningful reforms will retard or even reverse the process of globalization, thus depriving all concerned of globalization's attendant benefits. Even more ominously, such a failure would seriously undermine democratic values and erode the very foundations of political and economic freedom in large parts of the world that sustain private enterprise, property rights, respect for individual freedom, and protection of human rights. Ethics & International Affairs: Volume 16, Volume 1, (2002) Implementing Ethics Programmes: The Role of Public Sector Project Design and Process Management by Bryane Michael, Linacre College [bryane.michael@linacre.oxford.ac.uk] “Technical” public sector reform programmes often ignore the politics and value judgments inherent in these programmes. One way of addressing these concerns has been the implementation of public sector ethics programmes. Yet, ethics programmes themselves have been treated as technical exercises – ignoring political and value judgments. This paper discusses two methods of analysis which may serve public sector administrators and ethics officials in dealing with the moral and political issues lying behind the ethics programme. These issues are illustrated through the example in the US-Russian Basic Guidelines for Codes of Business Conduct. International Journal of Politics and Ethics 2(4). International Ethics Article Links/Websites Return to Top Research Bibliography: Ethical Issues Arising in a Global Economy Ethics Resource Center - Ethics Resource Center 1998 Research bibliography compiled by the Ethics Resource Center in 1998-1999. http://www.ethics.org/resources/article_detail.cfm?ID=40 Stability Pact Anticorruption Initiative By Mary Sue Brookshire, M.Div. Program Associate, Ethics and Servant Leadership Why have countries of South Eastern Europe, along with the international community, mobilized to fight bribery and corruption in the region? The answer is simple: corruption respects no borders, knows no economic distinctions and infects all governments. No country of South Eastern Europe can afford the social, political and economic costs that bribery and corruption entail. As such, the fight against bribery and corruption has moved to the top of the regional political agenda. If not so long ago, bribing public officials to obtain any deal was, if not an acceptable, at least a tolerated practice in the region, in the new millennium, countries of the region, associated with the international community, will play by stricter rules. The legal and institutional framework will be reformed according to European and other international standards not only to outlaw the practice of bribing public officials, but also to promote a whole arsenal of legal instruments to improve ethical standards in the public sector and the rule of law, to curtail money laundering and to clean up public procurement practices. http://www1.oecd.org/daf/SPAIcom/ The Internet Center for Corruption Research provides you with the TI-Corruption Perception Index, a comparative assessment of country's integrity performance, along with world-wide press reactions to our initiative and many other links and services. We also present academic research on corruption. Approach our research area for this purpose. http://www.gwdg.de/~uwvw/icr.htm Human Right in Europe Website In cooperation with partner institutions and individuals from throughout the EU accession region, the EU Accession Monitoring Program monitors compliance with aspects of the Copenhagen political criteria for accession. Reflecting the interests of the Soros foundation network in promoting human rights and democracy, monitoring focuses on minority rights, the judiciary, corruption and (together with OSI's Network Women's Program ) equal opportunities for women and men. http://www.eumap.org/library/content/001/50 Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index 2002 The TI Corruption Perceptions Index 2002 ranks 102 countries, the highest number ever. Seven out of ten countries ranked score less than 5 out of a clean score of 10 Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index 2002 The International Institute for Public Ethics is an international professional association for practitioners and scholars working in the field of Public Sector Ethics. Its prime objective is to develop an international and professional community of public sector ethicists, and to offer support for scholars and practitioners in the field. The IIPE Code of Ethics is now available online in pdf format. http://www.iipe.org/ Transparency International: Daily Corruption Newsletter The Daily Corruption News is a press review of corruption related stories from around the globe. It is also available via e-mail. http://www.transparency.org/ Global Integrity Management Global Integrity Management (GIM) is the Ethics Resource Center's solution to the need for a cohesive approach to managing global competitiveness while meeting the demands of multiple stakeholders for social responsibility and fairness. http://www.ethics.org/gim/index.html Carnegie Council on Ethics and International Affairs An independent, nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to research and education in the field of ethics and international affairs. The Carnegie Council exists to provide leadership, guidance, education, and a home for those seeking to relate insights and resources of the world's moral traditions to the most urgent issues of our time. Items of immediate interest are listed below. Their website is located: http://www.cceia.org/index.html EUROPEAN GROUP OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION STUDY GROUP: ETHICS AND INTEGRITY OF GOVERNANCE Corruption, ethics and integrity have become important issues in the practice and theory of politics, public administration, law, economics and society. This has led to more awareness and knowledge of the ethical or moral dimension of politics and administration and the causes of and solutions for ethical dilemmas and integrity violations. The study group on Ethics and Integrity of Governance brings together academics and practitioners interested in the ethical dimension of public administration and organisation. The group's mission is to establish a long-term network aimed at stimulating research on public sector integrity and ethics in Europe. http://www.fernuni-hagen.de/POLALLG/EGPA/index.htm

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