American Public Service

Book excerpt: Questions of ethics in public administration are increasingly in the news, where commentators seem too often detached from the sources of those ethics and their application to current political conflicts. American Public Service: Constitutional and Ethical Foundations examines public administration ethics as contextualized by constitutional, legal, and political values within the United States. Through case studies, hypothetical examples, and an easy-to-read discussion format, the authors explore what these values mean for specific duties of government managers and for the resolution of many contemporary issues confronting public sector officials. Key Features: • Describes the philosophical underpinnings of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights • Identifies the values that anchor and define what government and public administrators should do. • Indicates where these values fit into a framework for moral decision-making in the public sector, and how they apply to discussions of current controversies in public administration. • Written by authors with rich experience as both lawyers and academics in public administration programs.