Ethics and the Public Author(s): Stephen K. Bailey Source: Review, Vol. 24, No. 4 (Dec., 1964), pp. 234-243 Published by: Wiley on behalf of the American for Public Administration Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/973314 . Accessed: 12/01/2015 13:37

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This content downloaded from 131.238.87.166 on Mon, 12 Jan 2015 13:37:28 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Ethics and the Public Service*

By STEPHEN K. BAILEY Syracuse University

> Hard questions of public ethics are not answered by the semantic concoctions,pious platitudes, and appalling lack of subtlety that often characterize W HEN Dean Appleby was asked to de- the codes enunciated to guide political and admin- liver the Edward Douglass White lec- istrative behavior. Building upon the "uncommon turesat Louisiana State Universityin wisdom" and personal example of Dean Paul Ap- the Spring of 1951, he chose as his topic, pleby, his successoras Dean of the Maxwell School, Syracuse University,examines the mental attitudes Morality and Administrationin Democratic and moral qualities necessaryto an explicit theory .He preferredthe term"morality" of personal ethics in the public service. because he did not wish to suggesthis lectures were "either a treatmentin the systematic termsof general philosophyor a 'code of ad- for promotingethical choices. The most seri- ministrativeethics'."' ous threatsto the "good society"came, in his His attemptinstead was to cast the light of estimation, not from the venality of indi- his uncommon wisdom upon what he con- viduals but from imperfectionsin institu- sidered to be the central ethical and moral tional arrangements. issues of the American public service. These issues centeredupon the felicitousinteraction A Normative Model for of moral institutional arrangements and Personal Ethics morallyambiguous man. His normative model ran something as In some ways Moralityand Administration follows: and hierarchyforce public is a disconcertingbook. The essays are dis- servantsto referprivate and special interests continuous.Each one is chocked with insight, to higherand broaderpublic interests.Politics but in the collection viewed as a whole, does thisthrough the disciplineof the majority theoretical coherence and structureemerge ballot which forcesboth political executives implicitly rather than explicitly. Some in- and legislatorsto inserta majoritariancalcu- herentlyambiguous termslike "responsibility" lus into the considerationof private claims. are clarifiedonly by context.The final chap- Hierarchydoes it by placing in the hands of ter,"The AdministrativePattern," is not the top officialsboth the responsibilityand the logical fulfillmentof the precedingchapters. It necessityof homogenizingand moralizingthe stands beside the other essays,not on top of special interestsinevitably represented by and them. Furthermore,in spite of the highly throughthe lower echelons of organizational personal connotationof the word "morality," pyramids.2Both politics and hierarchy are Dean Appleby spent most of his time dis- devices forassuring accountability to the pub- cussing the effectof the governmentalsystem lic as a whole. The public makes its will upon officialmorality rather than vice versa. known in a variety of ways and through a He saw in the Americangovernmental system a seriesof political and organizationaldevices 2 The intellectual as distinctfrom the moral implica- tions of hierarchy have been suggested by Kenneth * This essay was prepared for a memorial volume Underwood in his contention that "The -making honoring the late Paul H. Appleby. The book, to be is to be distinguished from the middle man- entitled Public Administrationand Democracy, is ed- agement-supervisorlevels most basically in the exces- ited by Roscoe C. Martin, and is expected to be pub- sively cognitive,abstract dimensions of his work." See lished by the Syracuse UniversityPress in 1965. his paper "The New Ethic of Personal and Corporate : Paul H. Appleby, Moralty and Administration in Responsibility," presented at the Third Centennial Democratic Government(Baton Rouge: Louisiana State Symposium on The Responsible Individual, April 8, UniversityPress, 1952), p. vii. 1964, Universityof Denver. 234

This content downloaded from 131.238.87.166 on Mon, 12 Jan 2015 13:37:28 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions PUBLIC ETHICS variety of channels, but its importance is to the public, the precise interestto the in- largelyin its potential ratherthan in its con- choate moral judgment.Within thiscontext, a crete expressions. "Its capacity to be, more moral public decision becomes one in which the of than its being, is crux democratic "the action conformsto the processesand symbols thus reality."3 Politics and hierarchyinduce the far developed for the general protection of political public servant to search imaginativelyfor a freedom as the agent of more general freedom; . .. public-will-to-be.In this search, the public leaves open the way for modification or reversal by servantis oftena leader in the creation of a public determination; . . . is taken within a hierarchy of controls in which responsibilityfor action may be new public will, so he is in part accountable readily identifiedby the public; . . . and embodies as to what he in part creates.But in any case the contributionsof leadership the concrete structuringof basic moralityof the systemis in its forcing response to popularly felt needs, and not merely re- of unitaryclaims into the mill of pluralistic sponses to the private and personal needs of leaders."" considerations. It is no disparagementof Dean Appleby's The enemiesof thisnormative model, then, contributionsto a normativetheory of demo- are obvious: theyare whateverdisrupts politics cratic governance to point out that he dealt and hierarchy.For whateverdisrupts politics only intermittentlyand unsystematicallywith and hierarchypermits the settlementof public the moral problems of the individual public issues at too low a level of organization-at servant.The moral systemintrigued him far too private a level, at too specialized a level. more consistentlythan the moral actor.All of As Madison saw in Federalist #1o, bigness is his books and essayscontain brilliantflashes of the friendof freedom.But Appleby saw more insightinto the moral dilemmasof individual clearlythan Madison that bignessis freedom's executives,administrators, and legislators,but friendonly if administrativeas well as legisla- thereemerges no gestalt of personal ethics in tive devices exist to insure that policy de- government.One can only wish that he had cisions emerge out of the complexityof big- addressed himselfto a systematicelaboration ness rather than out of the simplicityof its of the personal as well as the institutionalas- constituentparts. The scatterationof power pects of public ethics.For the richnessof his in the Congress,the virtual autonomyof cer- administrativeexperience and the sensitivity tain bureaus and even lesser units in the ex- of his insightmight have illuminateduniquely ecutive branch, an undue encroachmentof the continuingmoral problemsof thosewhose legal and other professionalnorms upon ad- it is to preserve and improve the ministrativediscretion, the substitutionof the Americanpublic service. expertfor the generalistat the higherlevels of Perhaps, without undue retention, this generalgovernment, the awardingof statutory memorial essay can attempt to fashion a power at the bureau rather than at the de- prolegomena to a normative theoryof per- partmentlevel, the atomized characterof our sonal ethics in the public service-building political parties-these, according to Dean upon and elaborating some of the fragments Appleby,are the effectiveenemies of morality which Dean Appleby scatteredthroughout his in thegovernmental system. They are thesymp- writingsand teaching. tomsof political pathology."Our poorestgov- Dean Appleby's fragmentssuggest that per- ernmentalperformances, both technicallyand sonal ethics in the public service is com- morally,"he wrote, "are generallyassociated pounded of mental attitudesand moral quali- with conditionsin which a few citizens have ties. Both ingredients are essential. Virtue very disproportionateinfluence."4 ". . . the without understandingcan be quite degradationof democracyis in the failure to as dis- astrousas understandingwithout virtue. organizeor in actual disintegrationof political The three essential mental attitudes responsibility,yielding to are: (i) a recognitionof special influence."5 the moral ambiguityof all men and of all public ; (2) Here, then,is the grand design.Government a recogni- tion of the contextual is moral insofaras it induces public servantsto forceswhich condition moral prioritiesin the public relate the specificto the general, the private service;and (3) a recognitionof the paradoxes of procedures. 3Appleby, op. cit., p- 35. The essentialmoral qualities of the ethical 4Ibid., p. 214. 5Ibid, p. 211. Ibid., p. 36.

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public servantare: (1) optimism;(2) courage; maker and for the programhe or his agency and (3) fairnesstempered by charity. espouses. But administrativedecisions fash- These mental attitudesand moral qualities ioned totallyout of deferenceto private am- are relevant to all public servants in every bitions and personal interestscan negate the branch and at every level of government. verypurposes of general governmentand can They are as germaneto judges and legislators induce the righteousreaction of a votingpub- as they are to executivesand administrators. lic. They are as essentialto line officersas to staff The factis that thereis no way of avoiding officers.They apply to state and local officials the introductionof personal and private in- as well as to national and international of- terestsinto the calculus of public decisions. ficials.They are needed in ,foreign, As JamesHarvey Robinson once wrote, and other specialized servicesquite as much "In all governmental policy there have been over- as they are needed in the career whelming elements of personal favoritismand private and among political executives. They, of gain, which were not suitable for publication. This is course,assume the virtue of probityand the owing to the fact that all governmentsare managed by institutionalchecks upon venalitywhich Dean human beings, who remain human beings even if they are called kings, diplomats, ministers, secretaries, or Appleby has so brilliantlyelaborated. They judges, or hold seats in august legislative bodies. No are the genericattitudes and qualities without process has been discovered by which promotion to a which big democracy cannot meaningfully position of public responsibilitywill do away with a survive. man's interestin his own ,his partialities,race, and prejudices. Yet most books on governmentneglect Mental Attitudes these conditions; hence theirunreality and futility.", The Moral Ambiguityof Men and Measures The most frequentlyhidden agenda in the The moral public servantmust be aware of deliberationsof public servantsis the effectof the moral ambiguityof all men (including substantiveor procedural decisions upon the himself)and of all public policies (including personal lives and fortunesof those deliberat- those recommendedby him). Reinhold Nei- ing. And yet the very call to serve a larger buhr once statedthis imperative in the follow- public oftenevokes a degreeof selflessnessand ing terms: "Man's capacity for justice makes nobilityon the part of public servantsbeyond democracypossible, but man's inclination to the capacity of cynics to recognizeor to be- injusticemakes democracynecessary."7 Ameri- lieve. Man's feet may wallow in the bog of can public ethicsfinds its historicroots in the self-interest,but his eyesand ears are strangely superficiallyincompatible streamsof Calvin- attuned to calls from the mountain top. As ism and Deism. The formeremphasized a de- moral philosophy has insistently claimed, pravitywhich must be contained; the latter there is a fundamentalmoral distinctionbe- emphasized a goodness which must be dis- tween the propositions"I want this because it covered and released. The relevance of this serves my interest,"and "I want this be- moral dualism to modern governance is cause it is right." patent. Any or any act of administrative The fact that man is as much a rationaliz- discretion based upon the assumption that ing as a rational animal makes the problemof mostmen will not seek to maximizetheir own either provingor disprovingdisinterestedness economic advantage when reportingassets for a trickyand knottybusiness. "I support the income purposes would be quite unwork- decision before us because it is good for the able. But so would any law or any act of ad- public," may emerge as a rationalization of ministrativediscretion which assumed that the less elevatedbut more highlymotivational proposition:"I most men would use any and every ruse to supportthe decision beforeus because it will help re-electme, or avoid paying at all. Similarly,any ad- help in my chances for promotion, recognition, or in- ministrativedecision threateningthe chances creased status." But of re-electionof a powerfullyplaced Congress- the latter may have emerged,in turn,from a superordinatepropo- man almost inevitablyinvokes counter forces sition: "Only if I am re-elected(or promoted) which may be serious both for the decision can I maximize my powers in the interestsof 7 The Children of Light and the Children of Dark- 8 The Human Comedy (London: The BodleyRead, ness (New York: Scribners,1944), p. xi of Foreword. 1937), p. 232.

This content downloaded from 131.238.87.166 on Mon, 12 Jan 2015 13:37:28 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions PUBLIC ETHICS 237 the general citizenry."Unfortunately, no cal- definition.It is because an adequate response ipers exist for measuringthe moral purityof to any social evil contains the seeds of both human motivations. predictable and unpredictable pathologies. But, in any case, few would deny the wide- One can, in the framingof or decisions, spread moral hunger to justifyactions on a attempt to anticipate and partly to mitigate wider and higher ground than personal self- the predictable pathologies (although this is interest.In fact, the paradox is that man's rarelypossible in any completesense). But one self-respectis in large part determinedby his mark of moral maturityis in the appreciation capacity to make himselfand others believe of the inevitabilityof untoward and often that self is an inadequate referentfor de- malignanteffects of benign moral choices. An cisional morality. This capacity of man to Egyptianonce commentedthat the two most transcend,to sublimate,and to transformnar- devastatingthings to have happened to mod- rowlyvested compulsions is at the heart of all ern Egypt were the RockefellerFoundation civilized morality.That this capacity is ex- and the Aswan Dam. By enhancing public ercised imperfectlyand intermittentlyis less health, the RockefellerFoundation had upset astounding than the fact that it is exercised the balance of nature with horrendousconse- at all. A man's capacity for benevolent and quences for the relationshipof population to disinterestedbehavior is both a wonder and a food supplies; by slowingthe Nile, the Aswan challenge to those who work below, beside, Dam had promotedthe developmentof ener- and above him. It is in recognitionof this vatingparasites in the river.The consequence moral realitythat Dean Appleby wrotein one of the two factorswas that more people lived of his mosteloquent statements, longerin moremisery. "the manner and means of supporting one's own con- The bittersweetcharacter of all victions,including inventivenessin perceivinghow high needs little further elaboration: welfare ground may be held, are one measure of skill in the policies may mitigate hunger but promote administrativeprocesses parasitic dependence; vacationing in forests But appeal to high moralityis usually in- open for public recreationmay destroyfish, sufficient.It is in appreciating the reality of wild life, and through carelessness in the self-interestthat public servantsfind some of handling of fire,the foreststhemselves. Uni- the strongestforces for motivatingbehavior- lateral internationalaction may achieve im- public and private. Normally speaking, if a mediate resultsat the cost of weakeninginter- public interestis to be orbited, it must have national instrumentsof conflict resolution. as a part of its propulsive fuel a number of Half a loaf may be worse than no loaf at all. special and particular interests.A large part It also may be betterin the long run but worse of the art of public serviceis in the capacityto in the shortrun-and vice versa. harnessprivate and personal intereststo pub- Awarenessof thesedilemmas and paradoxes lic interestcauses. Those who will not traffic can immobilize the sensitive policy maker. in personal and private interests(if such in- That is one of the reasonswhy both optimism terestsare within the themselves law) to the and courage are imperativemoral qualities in point of engaging their support on behalf of the public service.At best,however, awareness causes in which both public and private in- of moral ambiguitycreates a spiritof humility terestsare served are, in termsof moral tem- the decision maker and a willingness to perament,unfit for public responsibility. in through com- But there is a necessarymoral corollary: a defer to the views of others recognition of the morally-ambivalenteffect promise. Humility and a willingnessto com- life-style of all public policies. There is no public de- promiseare pricelessattributes in the cision whose moral effectcan be gauged in of the generalityof public servantsin a free terms of what game theoristsrefer to as a society. For they are the preconditions of "zero-sum"result: a total victoryfor the right those fruitfulaccommodations which resolve and a total defeat for the wrong.This ineluc- conflict and which allow the new to live table fact is not only because "right" and tolerably with the old. Humility, however, ''wrong" are incapable of universally-accepted must not be equated with obsequiousness,nor willingnessto compromisewith a weak affa- 9Op. Cit., p. 222. bility.As Harold Nicolson once wrote,

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"It would be interesting to analyze how many false branch of a bureau to worryabout Congres- decisions, how many fatal misunderstandings have sional relations-except on specificmandate arisen from such pleasant qualities as shyness,consid- eration, affabilityor ordinary good manners. It would fromabove. But a bureau chief, an assistant be a mistake . . . to concentrate too exclusively upon secretary,under-secretary, or secretaryof a those weaknesses of human nature which impede the department may find himself contextually intelligent conduct of discussion. The difficultiesof conditionedto respondfrequently to Congres- precise negotiation arise with almost equal frequency sional forceswhose effectit is to undermine from the more amiable qualities of the human heart."'10 the integrityof the hierarchicalarrangements Men and measures,then, are morally am- in the executive branch. The heroic propor- biguous. Even if this were not a basic truth tionsof the Presidencybecome clear when one about the human condition, however,moral recognizesthat the winds are fiercestand most judgments in the public service would be variable above the timberline. The veryfact made difficultby the shiftingsands of context. that the Presidenthas fewermoments in the An awareness of the contextual conditions day than there are critical problems to be which affectthe arrangingof moral priorities solved, and that crises often emerge un- is an essential mental attitude for the moral heralded,means an unevennessin the applica- public servant. tion of his time and attentionto adjustingor The moral virtuesof the Boy Scout oath are influencingthe moral niceties of any single widely accepted in the . But, as issue. Dean Appleby understoodthis when he Boy Scouts get older, theyare faced time and wrote, "On many mattershe [the President] again with the disturbingfact that contexts will appear ratherneutral; beyond enumerat- exist withinwhich it is impossibleto be both ing items in messagesand budgets he can ex- kind and truthfulat the same time.Boy Scouts pend his time and energies on only a few are trustworthy.But what if they are faced things. On as many matters as possible he with competingand incompatible trusts(e.g. normally yields for the sake of larger con- to guard the flag at the base and to succor a cerns."'1LThe crucial word is "yields." Put distantwounded companion)? Men should be in another way, if the President had more loyal,but what if loyaltiesconflict? time and staffassistance he would "yield" to far fewer private and petty claims than he Winds Above the TimberLine presentlysupports tacitly or openly. During the Kennedy administration,the To the morally-sensitivepublic servant,the Presidentcalled togethera small group of top strainsof establishinga general value frame- legislators,cabinet officers,and executiveoffice work for conducting the public business is staffto advise him on whetherhe should sup- nothingcompared to the strainsof re-sorting portthe extensionof price supportsfor cotton. specificvalues in the light of changing con- His staffreminded him of the bonanza which texts.The dilemmashere are genuine. If value price supports gave to the biggest and prioritiesare shiftedwith everypassing wind, wealthiest cotton farmers. Legislative and the shifterwill sufferfrom his developing cabinet leaders reminded him that a Presi- reputationas an opportunist.If value priori- dential veto on an importantagricultural bill ties are neveradjusted, the saintscome march- could mean forfeitingkey and criticallegisla- ing in and viable democratic politics goes tive support on subsequent domestic and in- marchingout. To be consistentenough to de- ternationalmatters of over-ridingimportance serve ethical respect from revered colleagues to the nation's and from oneself; to be pliable enough to securityand welfare.The Presi- dent agreed not to survivewithin an organizationand to succeed veto the bill, but the moral in effectuatingmoral purposes-this is the tormentwas there.According to one witness, dilemma and the gloryof the public service. he staredat the wall and mumbled to himself, In general,the higher a person goes on the "There is something wrong here. We are rungs of power and authority, the more giving money to those who don't need it. If wobbly the ethical ladder. It is not the func- I am re-electedin 1964,I'm going to turn this tion of the junior civil servantin a unit of a governmentupside down." President Eisenhower was an honorable ? Quoted by James Reston, in The New York Times, April ii, 1957. " Op. cit., p. 127.

This content downloaded from 131.238.87.166 on Mon, 12 Jan 2015 13:37:28 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions PUBLIC ETHICS 239 chiefexecutive. Yet he publiclylied about the aspect of that mostprecious legacy of the past: U-2 affair.The contextwas the crucial deter- the rule of law. Officialwhim is the enemyof minant. a civilized social order. Not only does it sow If the heat in the ethical kitchen grows the seeds of anarchyin organization,it denies greaterwith each level of power, no public to a new idea the temperingwhich the heat of servantis immunefrom some heat-some con- procedural gauntletsnormally provides. John cern with context. As Dean Appleby has Mill's "marketplace" is of little utilityif an written.". . . a special favor,in administra- idea is never allowed to enter the town at all. tion even-as by a trafficpoliceman, to a blind But, alas, if procedures are the friend of person or a cripple-would be regarded as a deliberationand order,they are also at times political good when it appears an act of equity the enemyof progressand dispatch. Further- compensatingfor underprivilege."'2 more, there are procedures and procedures. There is not a moral vice which cannot be There are apt procedures and inept pro- made into a relativegood by context.There is cedures. The only really bitter commentsin not a moral virtue which cannot in peculiar Morality and Administrationare reservedfor circumstanceshave patently evil results. those members of the legal professionwho The mental attitudewhich appreciates this believe that administrationshould be circum- perversitycan be led, of course,into a waste- scribed by precise legal norms, and that a land of ethical relativity.But this is by no series of administrativecourts should be the means either inevitable or in the American effectivearbiters and sanctionersof adminis- culture even probable. Where this attitude trativediscretion.14 And this,of course,is only tends to lead the mature public servant is one aspect of the problem.Juridic procedures towarda deep respectfor the inconstantforces aside, both administrationand legislationare which swirl around public offices,and toward frequentlyencumbered by rules and clear- a deeper understandingof the reasons why ances which limitboth responsivenessand the moral men sometimes appear to make un- accountabilitythey were presumablydesigned ethical public decisions. An old American to enhance. The Rules Committee of the Indian proverb is relevant: "Do not scoffat House of Representatives is not only the your frienduntil you have walked threemiles guardian of orderly procedures, it is the in his moccasins." Because it is not easy for graveyardof importantsocial measures. The any man to place himselfempathetically in the contract and personnel policies of many arena of moral dilemmas faced by another agencies, federal, state, and local, have fre- man, charityis a difficultmoral virtueto main- quentlyled to what Wallace Sayrehas termed tain with any constancy.But as we shall re- "the triumph of technique over purpose." view more fullybelow, charityis an essential Anyone who has been closely associated with moral quality in the public service of a reorganization studies and proposals knows democracy. that everyshift in organization-in the struc- tural means for accomplishinggovernmental Paradoxes of Procedure ends-is pregnant with implications for the The thirdmental attitudewhich the public ends themselves.Only a two-dimensionalmind servant of a free society must cultivate is a can possibly entertain seriously the notion recognitionof the paradoxes of procedures. that the structuraland procedural aspects of JusticeFrankfurter once wrote, "The history governmentare unrelated to competing phi- of Americanfreedom is, in no small measure, losophiesof substantivepurpose. the historyof procedure."'3 Rules, standards, The public servant who cannot recognize proceduresexist, by and large,to promotefair- the paradoxes of procedureswill be trapped ness,openness, depth of analysis,and account- by them.For in the case of procedures,he who abilityin the conduct of the public's business. deviates frequently is subversive; he who Those who frequentlyby-pass or short-cut neverdeviates at all is lost; and he who tinkers established means are therebyattacking one with procedureswithout an understandingof substantiveconsequence is foolish.Of all gov- 2 Op. cit., p. 64. ernmental roles, the administrativerole is 1 Felix Frankfurter,Malinski v. New York, 324, U.S. 401, 414, 1945. 14 See especially, op. cit., Chapter 4.

This content downloaded from 131.238.87.166 on Mon, 12 Jan 2015 13:37:28 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 240 PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION REVIEW procedurallythe most flexible.But even here and if mankindis in any case unworthyof the proceduralflexibility in the public interestis trouble. achieved only by the optimistic,the coura- Optimism has not been the religious, geous,and the fair. philosophical, or literarymood of the twen- tiethcentury. But, in spiteof a seriesof almost Moral Qualities cataclysmicabsurdities, it has been the pre- If mental attitudesrelated to the moral am- vailing mood of science, , and poli- biguities,contextual priorities, and procedural tics.It is the mood of the emergingnations; it paradoxes of public life are necessaryprereq- is the mood of the space technologist;it is the uisites to ethical behavior on the part of mood of the urban renewer.Government with- public servants,they are insufficientto such out the leaveningof optimisticpublic servants behavior. Attitudes must be supported by quickly becomes a cynical game of manipula- moral qualities-by operating virtues.A list tion, personal aggrandizement,and parasitic of all relevant virtues would be a long security.The ultimate corruptionof freegov- one: patience, honesty,loyalty, cheerfulness, ernmentcomes not fromthe hopelesslyvenal courtesy,humility-where does one begin or but fromthe persistentlycynical. Institutional stop?One beginsbeyond the obvious and ends decadence has set in when the optimism of where essentialityends. In the American con- leadership becomes a ploy rather than an text,at least,the need forthe virtueof honesty honest mood and a moral commitment.True is too obvious to need elaboration. Although optimism is not Mr. Micawber's passive as- Dean Appleby has a chapteron "Venality in sumption that somethingwill turn up; true Government,"he properlydismisses the issue optimism is the affirmationof the worth of with a singlesentence: "Crude wrongdoing is takingrisks. It is not a belief in sure things;it not a major, general problem of our govern- is the capacityto see the possibilitiesfor good ment." And he continues with the pregnant in the uncertain,the ambiguous, and the in- remark,"Further moral advance turns upon scrutable. more complicatedand elevatedconcerns."'15 Organic aging and the disappointmentsand The three essential moral qualities in the disaffectionsof experience often deprive ma- public serviceare optimism,courage, and fair- ture individuals of the physical and psychic ness temperedby charity. vitality which in youth is a surrogate for optimism.That is why optimismas a moral OvercomingAmbiguity and Paradox virtue-as a life-style-is one of the rare treasuressought by all personnel prospectors Optimism is an inadequate term. It con- whose responsibilityit is to mine the common notes euphoria, and public life deals harshly lodes for extraordinary leadership talent. with the euphoric. But optimism is a better This is truein all organizations;it is especially word than realism,for the latterdampens the true in the public service. What else do we firesof possibility.Optimism, to paraphrase when we of Emerson, is the capacity to settle with some mean, speak disparagingly "bureaucratic drones," than that they are consistencyon the "sunnier side of doubt." who have entered the gates of Dante's It is the quality which enables man to face those Hell and have "abandoned all ambiguityand paradox withoutbecoming im- hope"? In the II when crises mobilized. It is essential to purposive as dis- midst of World War tinct from reactive behavior. Hanna Arendt were breakingout at everymoment and from once commentedthat the essence of politics everyquarter, an ancient White House clerk is natality not mortality. Politics involves was caught by a frenetic Presidential aide creativeresponses to the shiftingconflicts and whistlingat his work. The aide asked, "My the grossdiscomfortures of mankind.Without God, man, don't you know what's going on?" optimismon the part of the public servants, The clerk replied, "Young man, you would the political function is incapable of being be terrifiedif you knew how little I cared." performed.There is no incentive to create A sprinklingof such in the public servicecan policies to betterthe condition of mankind if be toleratedas droll. If a majority,or even a the quality of human life is in fact unviable, substantialminority of public servantsbecome jaded, however, especially at leadership 18Op. cit., p.56. levels,an ethicalrot settlesin whichultimately

This content downloaded from 131.238.87.166 on Mon, 12 Jan 2015 13:37:28 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions PUBLIC ETHICS 241 destroysthe capacityof a governmentto func- whimsyand discrimination-in otherwords to tion effectivelyin the public interest. providea kind of administrativedue process."18 The need for this kind of courage on a day A Capacity for Impersonalityand Decision to day basis is probably greater, and more difficultto in the than The second essential moral quality needed conjure, legislative in in the public serviceis courage. Personal and either the executive or the judicial branches of government. public life are so shot throughwith ambigui- in ties and paradoxes that timidityand with- A second area for consistentcourage the public serviceis to be found in the drawal are quite natural and normalresponses relation- of administratorsto for those confrontedwith them. The only ship general expertsand It as much threefriends of courage in the public service specialists. takes quite courage to face down as it are ambition,a sense of duty,and a recogni- minorityexpert opinion does to face down of a clamor- tion that inaction may be quite as painful as the majorityopinion action. ing crowd.In some waysit takesmore courage, for with are inti- Courage in governmentand politics takes relationships experts usually many forms.The late PresidentJohn F. Ken- mate in the decisional process, whereas re- nedysketched a seriesof profilesof one typeof lations with the crowd are often distant and courage-abiding by principle in an un- indistinct.Both courage and wisdom are re- in the words popular cause. But most calls upon courage flected of Sir WinstonChurchill: are less insistent and more pervasive. In "I knew nothing about science, but I knew public administration,for example, courage is somethingabout scientists,and had had much needed to insure that degree of impersonality practiceas a ministerin handling thingsI did withoutwhich friendship oozes into inequities not understand."19 and special favors. Dean Appleby relates a Perhaps on no issue of public ethicsis Dean relevant story about George Washington. Appleby more insistentthan on the necessity Washingtontold a friendseeking an appoint- of expertsbeing kept in their proper place- ment: "You are welcometo my house; you are subordinate to politicians and general ad- welcome to my heart . . . my personal feel- ministrators."Perhaps," he wrote,"there is no ings have nothingto do with the presentcase. single problem in public administrationof I am not GeorgeWashington, but Presidentof moment equal to the reconciliation of the the United States. As George Washington,I increasingdependence upon experts with an would do anythingin my power for you. As unending democratic reality."20The expert, President,I can do nothing."1 Normally it whetherprofessional, procedural, or program- takes less courage to deal impersonallywith matic,is essentialto theproper functioning of a identifiable interest groups than with long complex and highly technical social system. standingassociates and colleagues upon whom But the autonomous or disproportionate one has depended over the yearsfor affection power of experts,and of the limited worlds and for professional and personal support. theycomprehend, is a constantthreat to more This is true in relationshipto those inside as general considerationof the . well as those outside the organization. Part During World War II, a twenty-five-year-old of the lonelinessof authoritycomes fromthe civil servant in the soap division of O.P.A. fact,again in the wordsof Dean Appleby,that found himself, because of the temporary "to a distinctlyuncomfortable degree [the absence of superiors,dealing directlywith the administrator]must make work relationships president and legal staffof Lever Brothers. impersonal."'7Appleby was quick to see that Aftera fewminutes of confrontationthe presi- dent of impersonalityinvites the danger of arrogance, Lever Brothers turned scornfullyto the governmentemployee and asked, but he also saw that the courage to be im- "Young man, what in hell do you know about soap?" personal in complicated organizational per- A strong voice replied, "Sir, I don't know formanceis generallyvaluable as far as the much about soap, but I know a hell of a lot affectedpublic is concerned. "Its tendencyis about price control." to systematize fair dealing and to avoid 18 Op. cit., p. 149. 26Op. cit.,p. 130. 'Life, February28, 1949, p. 61. " Op. Cit., p. 221. wOP. cit., p. 145-

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This is the courage needed by a Budget that . . . it rejoices in upsettingand disturb- Bureau examinerdealing with the Pentagon; ing things."'2' this is the courage needed by an Assistant What remainsthrough the disorderand un- Secretaryof Health, Education, and Welfare predictabilityof historyis the sense on the in dealing with the Surgeon General; this is part of the public and of workingcolleagues the courage needed by a transientmayor in that power for whatever ends was exercised dealing with a career engineerin the public fairlyand compassionately.The deepeststrain worksdepartment; this is the courage needed in our ethical heritage is "man's sense of in- by a Congressmanfaced with appraising the justice." The prophetic voices of the Old ''expert" testimonyof an importantbanker in Testament repaired time and again to this his district. immemorialstandard. "Let Justiceroll down Perhaps the most essential courage in the like waters...." Hesiod, speakingfor genera- public serviceis the courage to decide. For if tions of ancient Greeks, wrote "Fishes and it is true that all policies have bitter-sweet beastsand fowlsof the air devour one another. consequences, decisions invariably produce But to men Zeus has givenjustice. Beside Zeus hurt. President Eliot of Harvard once felt on his throne Justicehas her seat."22Justice constrainedto say that the prime requisite of was the only positive heritage of the Roman an executivewas his willingnessto give pain. World. The establishmentof justice follows Much buck-passingin public life is the pru- directlybehind the formationof union itself dent consequence of the need for multiple in the Preamble to theAmerican Constitution. clearances in large and complex institutions. But the moral imperativeto be just-to be But buck-passingwhich stems from lack of fair-is a limited virtue without charity.Ab- moral courage is the enemy of efficientand solute justice presupposes omniscience and responsible government.The inner satisfac- total disinterestedness.Public servantsare al- tions which come fromthe courage to decide ways faced with making decisionsbased upon are substantial; but so are the slings and both imperfectinformation and the inartic- arrowswhich are invariablylet loose by those ulate insinuationsof self-interestinto the de- who are aggrievedby each separate decision. cisional calculus. Charityis the virtue which The issues become especially acute in person- compensates-for inadequate informationand nel decisions. Courage to fire,to demote, to for the subtle importunitiesof self in the withholdadvancement, or to shiftassignments making of judgments designed to be fair. against the wishes of the person involved, is Charityis not a softvirtue. To the contrary,it often the courage most needed and the most involvesthe ultimatemoral toughness.For its difficultto raise. exercise involves the discipliningof self and the sublimationof persistentinner claims for Man's Sense of Injustice personal recognition,power, and status. It is The thirdand perhaps mostessential moral the principleabove principle.In the idiom of quality needed in the public serviceis fairness the New Testament,it is the losing of self to temperedby charity.The courage to be im- findself. Its exercisemakes of compromisenot personaland disinterestedis of no value unless a sinister barter but a recognition of the it results in just and charitable actions and dignity of competing claimants. It fortifies attitudes.Government in a freesociety is the the persuasive rather than the coercive arts. authoritativeallocator of values in terms of It stimulatesthe visions of the good society partly ineffablestandards of justice and the without which governmentbecomes a sullen public weal. It requires the approximationof defenseof existingpatterns of privilege. moving targets partly camouflaged by the shadowsof an unknowablefuture. The success The Essential Humanity or failureof policies bravelyconceived to meet The normativesystems of politics and or- particular social evils is more frequentlyob- ganizationwhich Dean Appleby elaborated in scuredthan clarifiedby the passage of time.As his writings are umbilically related to the R. G. Collingwood once pointed out, "The n only thing that a shrewd and critical Greek The Idea of History (Oxford: Clarendon Press, like Herodotus would say about the divine 1946), p. 22. 22Quoted in Edith Hamilton, The Greek Way (New power that ordains the course of historyis York: W. W. Norton and Co., Inc. 1930), p. 292.

This content downloaded from 131.238.87.166 on Mon, 12 Jan 2015 13:37:28 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions PUBLIC ETHICS 243 mental attitudes and moral qualities of the Perhaps,therefore, Dean Appleby'swritings individual moral actor in the public service. about morality and government-no matter They nourish these attitudes and qualities. how wise and how provocative-were of less They condition and promotepublic morality. importance than the lessons of his example But the reverseis also true. Without proper as a public servant.For in selectingthe mental mental attitudesand moral qualities on the attitudes and moral qualities of the moral part of the public servant, Dean Appleby's public servant,I have been guided far more normativesystems could neitherexist nor be by my memoriesof Paul Appleby than by my meaningfullyapproximated. perusal of his writings.Dean Appleby in his Bureaucracyand technologyare the perva- public career demonstrated an uncommon sive realitiesof modern civilization.Together understandingof the moral ambiguities,the they have made possible order, prosper- contextual priorities,and the paradoxes of ity, and mobility in unprecedented magni- proceduresin ethical governance.Of all men tudes. But, unfortunately,they have demon- of my acquaintance in public life,he was the strateda perversetendency to drain fromman most completelyendowed in the moral quali- the blood of his essential humanity. The ties of optimism,courage, and fairnesstem- nobility of any society is especially encapsu- pered by charity.While his wisdom illumi- lated and made manifestto the world in the nated everythinghe observedand experienced, personal example of its public leaders and his example shone even more brilliantlythan public servants. his wisdom.

The Maintenance of Dignityand the Values of Democracy To have faithin the dignityand worthof the individual man as an end in himself;to believe thatit is betterto be governedby persuasionrather than by coercion; to believe that fraternalgoodwill is more worthythan a selfishand contentiousspirit; to believe that in the long run all values are inseparablefrom the love of truthand the disinterestedsearch for it; to believe that knowledge and the power it confersshould be used to promote the welfareand happiness of all men rather than to serve the interestsof those individuals and classes whom fortuneand intelligence endow with temporaryadvantage-these are thevalues which are affirmed by the traditionaldemocratic ideology. But theyare older and more uni- versal than democracyand do not depend on it. They have a life of their own apart fromany particularsocial systemor typeof civilization.They are the values which,since the time of Buddha and Confucius,Solomon and Zoroaster,Plato and Aristotle,Socrates and Jesus, men have com- monlyemployed to measurethe advance or the decline of civilization,the values theyhave celebratedin the saintsand sageswhom theyhave agreed to canonize. They are the values that readilylend themselvesto rational justification,yet need no justification. -From Carl L. Becker,New Liberties for Old Freedom and Responsi- bility(New Haven: The Yale UniversityPress, 1941).

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