Municipal Governments Can Grow Up, Too

Has your city’s government grown up yet, ethically speaking?

This isn't as silly a question as it sounds. All of us develop morally, just as we develop physically and intellectually and emotionally. We just don’t see our height grow or get university degrees or get married and have children, ethically speaking.

The same is true of municipal governments, according to James S. Bowman in his essay “The Ethical Professional,” which appears in The Ethics Edge, ed. Jonathan P. West and Evan M. Berman (ICMA Press, 2006).

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Bowman, editor of such excellent books as Ethical Frontiers in Public Management (Jossey-Bass, 1991) and Teaching Ethics and Values in Public Administration Programs (SUNY Press, 1998), takes Lawrence Kohlberg’s famous stages of moral development and applies them to organizations.

Kohlberg’s moral development process has three levels. In the first, the Preconventional, an individual considers himself outside the group (child vs. parents), and acts to avoid punishment and satisfy his needs through manipulating others. In the second level, the Conventional, the individual considers himself inside the group, and acts to please others, to conform to expectations, to respect law and order, to fulfill duties, and to accept his role in society. In the third level, the Postconventional, the individual considers himself above the group, and acts and thinks in terms of free choice and agreement, ethical principles, and critically-examined personal values.

Individuals stop somewhere along the way, mostly at the Conventional level, but at least in some ways even at the Preconventional level. This becomes more clear when the development levels are applied to organizations. My description of the levels goes a bit beyond what Bowman wrote, and focuses on government organizations.

Level 1 governments focus on avoiding punishment and thereby surviving, and they seek out strategies that will ensure this. They also act by manipulating situations, using victory as the justification for the tactics it uses. There is a strong feeling in the government of us vs. them, marked by secrecy and paranoia. You’ve seen government officials acting like children, petty, squabbling, manipulative, deceitful, unprofessional. They’re usually running Level 1 governments, just trying to see what they can get away with, treating the law (not to mention constituents) as something to get around rather than something to respect.

Level 2 governments conform to common practices, take direction from legitimate authority, and base their ethics on the law. A Level 2 government is not opposed to society, but sees itself as an important part of it. It seems to act professionally, but it is really acting conventionally, doing its job.

Level 3 governments are the ones that are truly professional, because professionals think for themselves and they think critically. They rely on open discussion, participatory management, critical analysis, and consensus. Their ethics comes not just from the law, but also from universal principles, such as fairness and justice, which they consider beyond and above the law. A Level 2 government might implement an unfair law. A Level 3 government openly and honestly debates a law to determine if it is fair. It does more than what is common and required, opening government up and considering the ethical implications of everything it does.

What level is your government at? My town has been at Level 1 for a long time. With a new administration, it is struggling to reach Level 2. But Level 1 individuals are doing their best to keep it down where it was.

I think this categorization of the ethical stages of government organizations can be useful to see where you are and to consider what it will take to go to the next level. For Level 1 governments, it should be embarrassing to recognize that infantile-seeming practices are actually infantile, not just politicians acting up, but a government organization that has not developed morally to the stage where its members act respectfully and conventionally. It isn't just partisan squabbling, as the press always says, but a government focused not on the interests and needs of the community, but rather on the interests and needs of the officials.