Includes index.

Introduction / Fred Thompson -- Canada's upside-down world of public-sector ethics / Andrew Stark -- The costs and benefits of ethics laws / B.A. Rosenson -- The effects of legislative ethics law : an institutional perspective / Alan Rosenthal -- Managerial leadership and the ethical importance of legacy / J. Patrick Dobel -- Professional ethics for politicians? / John Uhr -- Ethical political conduct and fidelity to the democratic ethos / Colin M. Macleod -- Governing pluralism / Andrew Sabl -- Ethical reasoning, epistemology, and administrative inquiry / James W. Myers, Fred Thompson -- The ethics eruption : sources and catalysts / Robert Williams -- Codes of conduct for public officials in Europe : common label, divergent purposes / David Hine -- Path dependence and self-reinforcing processes in the regulation of ethics in politics : toward a framework for comparative analysis / Denis Saint-Martin -- Political ethics and responsible government / Andrew Potter -- Comparing systems of ethics regulation / Oonagh Gay.

This important volume looks at conflicts of interest, codes of ethics, and the regulation of corruption in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, and the European Community. It finds that there is less corruption than ever before, but the gap between public expectations and perceptions has nevertheless widened. Moreover, it questions the dominant academic approach to applied ethics, with its emphasis on training, standards and procedures, and, ultimately, regulation. In contrast, the authors featured in this volume argue that governance is a social process.Ethical governing means attending to the relational aftermath of complex decisions - the ways in which decisions and their execution affect and sustain social relationships. Moreover, applied ethical reasoning in this context must not only confront certain stock issues, but must also lead to widespread participation in decision making processes. Viewed in this way, ethical governing means a respectful discourse involving widespread participation of legitimate viewpoints. Consequently, the authors suggest that the nearly universal dissatisfaction with the state of public ethics is a manifestation of something deeper and more profound. As one author explains, public perceptions won't look up so long as politics remains a spectator sport, dominated by 'sleaze ball tactics and shrinking sound bites'.

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