Ethics and the Public
Policy Maker
Two Levels of Ethical Debate in
Public Policy
1. Values to be considered in selecting “best”
policy
– Efficiency versus equity
– Security versus liberty
2. Values to be considered in ethical
dilemmas/individual choices confronting
public officials/policy makers
Three Values of the Policy Analyst
Analytical
integrity
Responsibility
to Client
Conception
of “public
good”
Examples Of Ethical Issues
for Policy Analyst
• “Cooking” the results
– Analyst adopts most optimistic assumptions to
better support client’s position
• Misrepresentation of results
– Altering results to better support client’s
position
Ethical Issues and the Public
Policy Maker
• Personal Values and Public Policy
• The Problem of “Dirty Hands”
• Deception and Secrecy
• Official Disobedience/”Whistleblowing”
• Violence (as an ethical means)
Personal Values
and Public Policy
The question is: Can Kerry
be a good Catholic and yet
take positions as a
lawmaker that contradict
the teachings of the church
on "life issues," especially
abortion and stem-cell
research?
The Weekly Standard, April
15, 2004
John Kerry
2004 Democratic
Party Presidential
nominee
Romney's campaign says that the
address, entitled "Faith In America," will
take place Thursday, December 6 at
the George H.W. Bush Presidential
Library in College Station Texas
Romney campaign spokesman Kevin Madden, in
a statement, says, "This speech is an opportunity
for Governor Romney to share his views on
religious liberty, the grand tradition religious
tolerance has played in the progress of our
nation and how the governor's own faith would
inform his presidency if he were elected.
Governor Romney understands that faith is an
important issue to many Americans, and he
personally feels this moment is the right moment
for him to share his views with the nation."
John F. Kennedy address to the Greater Houston Ministerial
Association, September 12, 1960:
I believe in an America where the separation of church and state is
absolute–where no Catholic prelate would tell the President (should he
be Catholic) how to act, and no Protestant minister would tell his
parishioners for whom to vote–where no church or church school is
granted any public funds or political preference–and where no man is
denied public office merely because his religion differs from the President
who might appoint him or the people who might elect him.
I believe in an America that is officially neither Catholic, Protestant nor
Jewish–where no public official either requests or accepts instructions on
public policy from the Pope, the National Council of Churches or any other
ecclesiastical source–where no religious body seeks to impose its will
directly or indirectly upon the general populace or the public acts of its
officials–and where religious liberty is so indivisible that an act against one
church is treated as an act against all.
For while this year it may be a Catholic against whom the finger of
suspicion is pointed, in other years it has been, and may someday be
again, a Jew–or a Quaker–or a Unitarian–or a Baptist. It was Virginia's
harassment of Baptist preachers, for example, that helped lead to
Jefferson's statute of religious freedom. Today I may be the victim- -but
tomorrow it may be you–until the whole fabric of our harmonious society is
ripped at a time of great national peril.
Religious Morality and Liberal
Democracy
• Faith, an elected public official, believes based
upon an authoritative religious text that human
consumption of animals is sinful. Should she
publicly express this belief in arguing for state
regulation of factory farms?
• Issue of tolerance given religious diversity of
modern liberal state (cf. US Constitution)
• Issue of accessibility of public arguments
Religious Belief and Public Morality: A
Catholic Governor’s Perspective
Remarks
delivered at the
University of
Notre Dame
September 13,
1984
Mario Cuomo
52nd Governor of New York
1983 – 1994
The Lincoln Case
• Lincoln formally expressed belief that
slavery morally wrong
• Similar to Cuomo felt moralists must also
be political realists
• Lincoln placed preservation of the union –
political order – above all other values
John Rawls and the Idea of
“Public Reason”
• Democratic societies derive their power from public of
free and equal citizens
• Ergo exercise of public power should justified with
arguments that all citizens can endorse in light of her/his
own reason – arguments must be accessible
• “Public reason:”
• General beliefs/forms of reasoning characteristic of
common sense
• Methods/conclusions of science (when not
controversial)
• Excludes “comprehensive religious and
philosophical doctrines, elaborate economic
theories,” etc.
Possible Standards of
Restraint
• Kinds of Beliefs
• Persons Affected
• Behavior Concerned
• Range of Subjects
Summary Suggestions
Ordinary citizens/religious groups free to rely on religious
beliefs when considering public policy issues
Legislators can take into account such citizen judgments and
own religious beliefs when considering issues, but should
seek to resolve issues on basis of public reasons
Public officials may act similarly to legislators, but face a higher
burden for public reasons
Judges/judicial opinions should always be cast in terms of
broadly public reasons