Ethics in Congress VI - Quotations and Ideas (Summer Reading)

<br>My last post about Dennis F. Thompson's book <b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Ethics-Congress-Individual-Institutional-Corrupti…; target="”_blank”">Ethics in Congress: From Individual to Institutional Corruption</a></b> is a
miscellany of interesting quotes and valuable ideas.<br>
<br>
Study on the Effect of Allegations on Voting:  "Campaign and
conflict of interest violations produced losses [for those accused
of these violations] on the order of 1% of the expected vote, while
bribery charges led to losses of about 12%. Members charged with
morals offenses suffer the most: they lost more than 20% of their
expected vote.”<br>
<br>

Primary Interests [that is, a legislator's legislative
duties]:  "Instead of trying to define conflicts by making the
secondary interest [the legislator's personal interest] more
specific, we should try to make the primary interest more specific,
… pay more attention to the specific nature of a member’s role in
institution. If Sen. Kerr chaired a subcommittee dealing with the
oil depreciation allowance, the conflict would be more serious than
if he had no special institutional responsibility for legislation
affecting the oil industry. … The more closely a member’s primary
interests … relate to secondary interests, … the more stringent the
restriction should be. In some cases, members could be required to
divest themselves of any substantial holdings that may be affected
by the actions of the committee.”<br>
<br>
Advice: “[T]he advising function would be more valuable if members
used it more often for ethical enlightenment than for political
cover.”<br>
<br>
Indirect Conflicts:  "There is ... no good reason to believe
that connections that are proximate and explicit are any more corrupt
than connections that are indirect and implicit. The former may be
only the more detectable, not necessarily the more deliberate or
damaging, form of corruption. Corruption that works through patterns
of conduct, institutional routines, and informal norms may leave
fewer footprints but more wreckage in its path.” <br>
<br>
The campaign finance system is the “single most important cause of
legislative corruption,” but it receives too much attention, to the
point that it has “become an excuse for ignoring the deficiency of
Congress’s own practices.”<br>
<br>
Non-Financial Conflicts:  "Rules on conflicts of interest
usually focus on financial gain, not because it is more pernicious
than other secondary interests but because its benefits are more
fungible and its value more objective. Money is useful for more
purposes and easier to regulate by impartial rules. … A
preoccupation with financial interests should not distract us from
looking for new ways to control these other kinds of influence."<br>
<br>
"Honest government is a good in itself” and it is also a
precondition for the making of good public policy. “In this respect,
it is more important than any single policy because all other
policies depend on it.”<br>
<br>
Disclosure Only:  "[News] stories on the financial resources of
[legislative] members are rarely presented in a way that would best
help voters make balanced judgments about the ethics of members. …
By itself, disclosure may merely further undermine confidence in
government, causing citizens to suspect the motives of legislators
but providing no constructive ways to restore trust. Disclosing a
possible conflict of interest merely reveals a problem without
providing any guidance for resolving it.”<br>
<br>
Robert Wechsler<br>
Director of Research-Retired, City Ethics<br>
<br>
203-859-1959