City Ethics
Breaking the oxymoron: "City Ethics"

Moral Clarity VI - Independent Ethics Enforcement

Anonymous

This is the sixth in a series of blog posts inspired by reading Susan Neiman’s book <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Moral-Clarity-Grown-Up-Idealists-Revised/dp/06911…; target="”_blank”"><i>Moral
Clarity:
A
Guide for Grown-Up Idealists</i></a> (Princeton, 2008).<br>
<br>
The impersonality of the categorical imperative, which I discussed in <a href="http://www.cityethics.org/node/1095">my last blog post</a>, is paralleled in the independence of government ethics enforcement.<br>
<br>

Neiman writes, “When
it comes to matters of justice or decency, all the particulars that
make
individuals who they are, and undergird your reactions to them, ought
to be put
aside.” This is impossible to do with respect to an individual with
whom you
have a relationship, good or bad. This is why politically involved
people
should not sit on ethics commissions. And because politically involved
people
tend to know other politically involved people, this is an important
reason why
politicians should not be involved in selecting ethics commission
members.<br>
<br>
As Neiman says, taking an objective, philosophical
approach is “the only way to get past the temptation to treat justice
as a
matter of helping your friends and hurting your foes.” This temptation
is
especially strong in government. It is so strong that it is the
extremely rare
instance when ethics matters are not treated as personal or political
matters.
It is hard for people in government to get past this temptation. Only
uninvolved, neutral individuals are in a position to do this
consistently.<br>
<br>
Other blog posts in this series:<br>
<a href="http://www.cityethics.org/node/1087&quot; target="”_blank”">Reason
and Ideals</a><br>
<a href="http://www.cityethics.org/content/moral-clarity-ii-intentions&quot; target="”_blank”">Intentions</a><br>
<a href="http://www.cityethics.org/content/moral-clarity-iii-ethics-environments…; target="”_blank”">Ethics Environments</a><br>
<a href="http://www.cityethics.org/content/moral-clarity-iv-self-interest&quot; target="”_blank”">Self-Interest</a><br>
<a href="http://www.cityethics.org/node/1095">The Categorical Imperative and Exceptionalism</a><br>
<br>
Robert Wechsler<br>
Director of Research-Retired, City Ethics<br>
<br>
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