Wk 8 – Law and Ethics

41916The question I would like you all to discuss this week is the difference between ethical decisions, moral decisions and legal decisions made by a public administrator. Then create your own scenario. It should be set in a public agency or body in keeping with our public administration focus. Please fill in enough information so your classmate can make an educated analysis, for instance the state in which it occurred and the agency so they can find the code. Don’t offer your thoughts on whether the scenario is a situation which would present an ethical, moral and/or legal dilemma. For your responses please answer that question for another student’s scenario and explain your reasoning. If there is not enough information, note what you would need to make a decision and the person who posted the scenario can fill in the gaps.

Reading Materials Week Eight – Ethics and the Law

Gostin, L. O. (2015). Law, ethics, and public health in the vaccination debates: politics of the measles outbreak. Jama, 313(11), 1099-1100. doi:10.1001/jama.2015.1518

Rauh, J. (2015). Predicting Political Influence on State Ethics Commissions: Of Course We Are Ethical-Nudge Nudge, Wink Wink. Public Administration Review, 75(1), 98-110. doi:10.1111/puar.12290

Gilman, S. C. (2014). Commentary: Codes, Damn Codes, and Laws: Continuing Controversies in Public Administration Ethics. Public Administration Review, 74(5), 571-572. doi:10.1111/puar.12258

Svara, J. H. (2014). Who Are the Keepers of the Code? Articulating and Upholding Ethical Standards in the Field of Public Administration. Public Administration Review, 74(5), 561-569. doi:10.1111/puar.12230

Benavides, A. D., & Dicke, L. A. (2016). Upholding ethical conduct in public professional organizations: An assessment of ICMA’s code of ethics. Global Virtue Ethics Review, 7(2), 34.

(2016, March). American Society for Public Administration Code of Ethics. Public Administration Review. p. 210. doi:10.1111/puar.12542.

Doty, P. (2015). Ethics, risk and U.S. government secrecy. Journal of Information Ethics, 24(1), 11-47.