PROFESSOR LYNN H. LEVERTY
PAD 6434: PUBLIC LEADERSHIP AND ETHICS
Fall 2014
lleverty@ufl.edu
Office hours:
TH 2 – 4 p.m.
F 10 am – Noon
Anderson Hall, Room 319
SYLLABUS
“Vaclav Havel has seen both sides of political power. As a writer and playwright, he suffered
persecution and imprisonment under Communist regimes and later rose to become president of
Czechoslovakia and of the Czech Republic. He points out that public officials live in a world of
half-truth, which saps the soul and integrity of any person. Based on his experiences, Havel
insists that only responsible individuals of integrity risking the moral danger of politics and
persisting in their quest for a better public life can make a difference in the world.” Public
Integrity, preface.
Public leadership and ethics, as expressed by as diverse group as classroom teachers, college
administrators, street level bureaucrats and elected and appointed officials, and, increasingly
nonprofit organizations, is of increasing concern to the professions and to the public they serve.
In recent years, state and local governments, school districts, universities and the federal
government have enacted increasingly strict ethics laws that seek to govern how those in public
service carry out their duties and make decisions. Public debates over ethics and integrity as well
as the general quality of our leadership have spurred new examinations of the way those who are
responsible to citizens should act.
The course provides maps and tools to make ethical leadership more explicit, but each person
must ultimately find his/her own way. You will not find the "one best way" or a quick fix. The
study of leadership and ethics in the public sector has been marked by diversity and this course
reflects that fact. However, the subject matter is fundamental to a good understanding of the
public sector because it deals with the "why" and not merely the "how to." In summary, the
course focuses on what it means to be an ethical public leader in a democratic society.
COURSE FORMAT:
1. Class participation and class assignments: class will meet on Tuesdays periods 8 – 10.
Students are expected to attend the seminar each week and be prepared to discuss the readings;
you will not do well if you are not in class. Please consider this seminar to be similar to a senior
staff meeting and arrive on time out of respect for your colleagues and the issues to be discussed.
You are required to prepare feedback reports on your readings each week. The feedback report
must be analytical; I do not need a summary of the readings. Please decide on the leadership
and/or ethical issue you consider to be the most interesting and focus on that. (50%)
2. Class leadership: based on your leadership of discussion about an assigned block of
readings. You may sign up for one of the weekly sessions beginning September 16. For this
assignment, you will lead a half hour discussion about a current event related to that week’s
readings. Information about the event should be distributed to the class the Wednesday before
your weekly session. You may simply lead discussion or you can prepare some type of activity
for the class that illustrates the week’s topic. (10%)
3. Options: For this assignment you have options. You may write a traditional term paper,
develop a case study on a current issue of public leadership and ethics or develop your own
project. Each student should meet with the instructor during the first 4 weeks of class to define
this assignment. (25%) Due November 18.
4. Final essay: of all the readings this semester, which was most important to your
understanding of leadership and ethics issues in the public sector? Why? Please be specific. For
example, how did this reading help you understand a particular area of public leadership and
ethics (e.g. elections or divided government)? (15%) Due December 9.
ADMINISTRATIVE ISSUES:
I expect assignments to be turned in on the due date. One letter grade per day (not class days)
will be taken off for late papers unless you have obtained prior approval for a different date due
to special circumstances or have a documented illness or family emergency. Please do not
hesitate to let me know if you have some type of special circumstance, but you must do so before
the due date unless it is an emergency.
The easiest way to reach me is to come by during office hours or through e-mail. I have two
offices on campus so phone calls are the least efficient. If my office hours are not convenient, I
am always happy to set a time to meet. Please do not hesitate to ask me for a scheduled
appointment. If you have any special needs, please let me know so that we can work together to
make this class a success.
READINGS:
E. J. Dionne, Our Divided Political Heart. New York: Bloomsbury, 2012.
Martin Luther King, Why We Can’t Wait. New York: Signet Classic, 1963.
Abby Mann, Judgment at Nuremberg. New York: New Directions, 2002.
Peter Northouse, Leadership: Theory and Practice, 6 ed. Los Angeles, Sage Publications, 2013.
Jessica Stern, Terror in the Name of God. New York: Harper Collins Publisher, 2003.
Desmond Tutu, No Future Without Forgiveness. London: Rider, 1999..
Assigned articles (full text available on-line): depending on current events some of these may be
revised
COURSE SCHEDULE: [subject to change during the semester]
PART 1: Overview
Why study public leadership and ethics? [August 26]
Class overview and discussion
Theories of leadership part 1 [September 2]
Northouse: chapters 1 - 7
Theories of leadership part 2 [September 9]
Northouse: chapters 8 – 13 and 15 – 16.
Michael Sittig, “Eroding the Public’s Confidence in Government …One Reform at a Time,” in
Public Integrity, vol. 16., issue 1, pages 77 – 92, Winter 2013/2014.
Lawrence Kohlberg’s Theory of Leadership Development [September 16]
Lawrence Kohlberg’s Theory of Moral Development
http://faculty.plts.edu/gpence/html/kohlberg.htm
Stefano Passini, “Moral Reasoning in a Multicultural Society: Moral Inclusion and Moral
Exclusion,” in Journal for the Theory of Social Behavior, vol. 40, issue 4, pages 435 – 451,
December 2010
PART 2: Special issues in the public sector
Values divide part 1 [September 23]
Dionne: intro and chapters 1 – 5
Other: tbd
Values divide part 2 [September 30]
Dionne: chapters 6 – 10
Ashley E. Jochim and Bryan D. Jones, “Issue Politics in a Polarized Congress,” in Political
Research Quarterly, vol. 66, issue 2, pages 352-369, 2012
Guest Speaker: Practitioner-in-residence, Graham Center, Randall Reid
Choosing elected officials: current issues [October 7]
Sheila Krumholtz, “Campaign Cash and Corruption: Honey in Politics, Post-Citizens United,” in
Social Research, vol. 80, issue 4, pages 1119- 1134, winter 2013.
Kenneth J. Levine, “Voter Decision Making: The Tension of Personal Identity, Personal Ethics
and Personal Benefit,” in American Behavioral Scientist, vol. 49, no. 1, pages 63-77, September
2005.
Representative leadership: does gender or race make a difference? Should we care that
the majority of elected/appointed officials are white males? [October 14]
Shannon Portillo, “How Race, Sex, and Age Frame the Use of Authority by Local Government
Officials,” in Law & Social Inquiry, Volume 35, Issue 3, 603–623, Summer 2010
Nancy Scherer and Brett Curry, “Does Descriptive Representation Enhance Institutional
Legitimacy? The Case of the US Courts,” in Journal of Politics, vol. 72, issue 1, pages 90 – 104,
January 2010.
Northouse: chapter 14
Private lives: how much should they count? [October 21]
Bartosz W. Wojdynski and Daniel Riffe, “What Kind of Media, and When? Public Opinion
about Press Coverage of Politicians’ Private Lives,” in Journal of Mass Media Ethics, Vol. 26,
2011, pages 206 – 223.
Adam Berinsky et all, “Sex and Race: Are Black Candidates More Likely to be Disadvantaged
by Sex Scandals?” in Political Behavior, June 2011, Vol. 33 Issue 2, p179 - 202.
Scott Basinger,”Scandals and Congressional Elections in the Post-Watergate Era,” in Political
Research Quarterly, vol. 66, issue 2, pages 385 – 398, June 2013.
Dealing with a different kind of leader: terrorism [October 28]
Stern: entire book
Peter A. Olsson, “Homegrown Terrorists, Rebels in Search of a Cause,” in Middle East
Quarterly, Summer 2013, Vol. 20, Issue 3
PART 3: When Governments Fail What Should be Done?
Criminal punishment [November 4]
Mann: entire book
Aaron Fichtelburg, “Fair Trials and International Courts: A Critical Evaluation of the
Nuremberg Legacy,” in Criminal Justice Ethics, vol. 28, issue 1, pages 5 – 24, May 2009.
Sarah M. Nouwen and Wouter G. Werner, “Doing Justice to the Political: The International
Criminal Court in Uganda and Sudan,” in European Journal of International Law, vol. 21, issue
4, pages 941 – 965, November 2010.
Civil Disobedience [November 18]
King: entire book
Courtney Dillard, “Civil Disobedience: A Case Study in Factors of Effectiveness,” in Society
and Animals, vol. 10, issue 1, pages 46 – 42, February 2002.
Mark J. Cherry, “Conscience Clauses, the Refusal to Treat, and Civil Disobedience – Practicing
Medicine as a Christian in a Hostile Secular Moral Space,” in Christian Bioethics: Nonecumenical Studies in Medical Morality, vol. 18, issue 1, pages 1 – 14, April 2012.
Reconciliation [December 2]
Tutu: entire book
Jlateh Vincent Jappah and Danielle Taana Smith, “Transitional Justice: Prioritizing Truth
Commissions or International Tribunals to Ensure Healing and Reconciliation,” in Journal of
International and Global Studies, vol. 5, issue 1, pages 1 – 15, November 2013.
Last class: discussion and evaluations [December 9]
ASSIGNMENTS
Reaction Papers: The reaction papers are due each week at the beginning of class. You may email them to me prior to class if this is easier. You will not receive credit for a late paper. Each
one should be 1 – 2 pages double-spaced. You do not have to use external sources, but if you do,
please cite appropriately. I do not want a summary of the readings. Just focus on what you
consider to be the most important or intriguing leadership and/or ethics issue.
Class Leadership: this is your chance to bring real life examples to the week’s topic.
Options Assignment: whichever choice you make should have excellent academic sources and
appropriate citations. The project should be the equivalent of a 20 page term paper.
The term paper may be on any topic related to public leadership and ethics; it is your choice.
If you choose a case study, please make sure the topic is narrowly defined. Although you cannot
read the entire case study the Harvard Kennedy School Case Collection
(http://www.case.hks.harvard.edu/). This is also a good primer on writing case studies:
http://writing.colostate.edu/guides/research/casestudy/.
Finally, you may develop your own project. In previous classes, students have developed a code
of ethics for a specific nonprofit or public organization that included participation of the
members of that organization, prepared a leadership and ethics training course for citizens
interested in running for public office and written a grant proposal for an international voluntary
organization interested in improving the intercultural leadership skills of its staff.
Final essay: By the end of class we will have read a wide variety of material on leadership and
ethics in the public sector. Which of these will you remember? Which would you share with
others? Why? Your response must be directly related to public leadership and ethics. This
essay should be about 5 pages in length.