Ethics and Public Administration: On the Italian Case and Beyond

Abstract

In Italy the theme of ethics and public administration has not yet found expression in a shared ethical-normative perspective and a systematic regulative framework that might help to formulate suitable principles and promote good practices. The present contribution will first provide an overview of the Italian situation, and then show the need for a philosophical foundation of the relationship between ethics and public administration. Following this theoretical foundational reflection, it will then analyze the applicative and practical aspect of the relationship, by highlighting the importance of the virtue of integrity, and the praxis of communication.

Keywords:

• ethics
• communication
• integrity
• public administration
• Italy

Notes

¹On this point see OECD, 2000.

²This Authority was founded by art. 1, law January 16, 2003, n. 3. Its functions were established through regulations defined in a decree issued by the Italian Presidente della Repubblica (October 6, 2004, n. 258).

³The expression “spoils system” was coined in Anglo-Saxon areas to designate the faculty—which is recognized to the political parties that win an electoral competition—to place people they trust in key positions of public administration. In the early 1990s the expression also started to designate the system of powers that allow political bodies (Ministers, Presidents of Regions, Mayors, etc.) to choose, among public servants who already work in public administration, those who deserve management positions. In Italy the spoils system was strengthened in recent years by law July 15, 2002, n. 145.

⁴See decree of the Ministro per la funzione pubblica, March 31, 1994. The code was modified and then published again in 2000 (see decree of the Ministro per la funzione pubblica, November 28, 2000).

⁵See executive orders n. 12674 of April 12, 1989, and n. 12931 of October 17, 1990.

⁶A law and a legislative decree have already been issued, respectively Law March 14, 2009, n. 15, and Legislative Decree October 27, 2009, n. 150 (which was definitively approved by the Italian Cabinet on January 9, 2010). The latter established a Commission for the evaluation, transparency, and integrity of public administrations (Commissione per la valutazione, la trasparenza e l'integrità delle amministrazioni pubbliche), which has started its activity recently, namely on December 22, 2009 and is directed by Antonio Martone.

⁷The problem of concentrated control over information and mass media is crucial in Italy and has become more and more important since Silvio Berlusconi started his political activity and then became Prime Minister. In particular, this problem has gained the attention of the European Parliament, the European Council and several international organisations, such as Freedom House, which classifies all the countries of the world on the base of the freedom of the press: according to this ranking, Italy, together with Turkey and some ex-Communist countries, is considered only partially free.

⁸Law July 20, 2000, n. 215.

⁹For a comparative analysis of best practices in other counties, see Pasini, 1996, and Sacconi, 1998. A seminal work on ethics and public administration is Applbaum, 2000.

¹⁰On this point, see the fifth book of Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics, where the author discusses the issue of “justice as reciprocity” or “proportional justice”, which designates the way in which institutions are required to distribute goods among citizens: they ought to give equal goods to equal people (and unequal goods to unequal people), so that the relationship between the goods is identical to that between people. Such a distributive justice is the cornerstone of living together, which is based on the importance of reciprocity.

¹¹Recent reflection of the role of civil servants, which is very important especially in the United States, is going in this direction.

¹²The need to join the virtues of integrity «to the appropriate conception of justice, one that allows for autonomy and objectivity correctly understood» is also expressed by Rawls (1971, p. 520 f.).

¹³The expression “performative” was introduced by Austin (1962), in order to define utterances which are used to perform an act instead of describing it. In fact, as Austin argued, “to say something is to do something” (Austin, 1962, p. 12).