Efficiency is good, but sometimes friction is better. This is a
basic statement of the argument made in <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/19/opinion/sunday/the-danger-of-too-much…; target="”_blank”">a
New York <i>Times</i> op-ed piece yesterday by Barry Schwartz</a>, a
psych professor at Swarthmore best known for his book <i>The Paradox of
Choice: Why More Is Less.</i><br>

Music to my ears in <a href="http://electionlawblog.org/wp-content/uploads/11-CV-562-PLD-166-2012-02…; target="”_blank”">an
order yesterday</a> from the federal court for the Eastern
District of Wisconsin, in a case involving an unsuccessful attempt by certain
Wisconsin state legislators to claim the attorney-client privilege

Newspapers aren't called the fourth estate for nothing. But in
cities these days, they are more like the third estate, more important, that is,
than the clergy. In fact, their investigations and editorials can
bring down mayors, council presidents, even parties.<br>
<br>
Local dailies may be losing money hand over fist, and weeklies, online papers, and blogs have taken away some of their power,
but the dailies still have more power with respect to politicians and
policies than anyone else.<br>
<br>

What is corruption? I try not to use this word with respect to
government ethics, because it is commonly thought of as having to do
with criminal misconduct such as bribery, kickbacks, fraud, and
embezzlement. There is, however, the term "institutional corruption," which
deals with legal misconduct that undermines public trust. And right
there in the middle is government ethics, which involves illegal but
not criminal misconduct. All very confusing.<br>
<br>

At the Institutional Corruption conference sponsored by Harvard's Safra Ethics Center last Saturday, Ann Tenbrunsel, co-author of <i>Blind Spots</i> (see <a href="http://www.cityethics.org/search/node/blind%20spots&quot; target="”_blank”">my blog
posts on this book</a>), noted that people act not only against
what is written in ethics codes, but also against their own values.

At the Institutional Corruption Conference sponsored by Harvard's
Safra Center last Saturday, Bruce Cain, a professor at UC Berkeley,
pointed out that the permeable boundary between government and
business (and, I would add, business law) brings into government
many individuals who have a different concept of ethics. That is, in
the business world, loyalty to one's supervisors (or clients) and to
the company is the most important thing. In government, loyalty
should be to the public. Of course, this is not loyalty as we know

Lawrence Lessig, who heads the Safra Center and hosted the event,
started by defining institutional corruption as:
<blockquote>A situation where influences within an economy of influence tend to
weaken the effectiveness of an institution, especially by weakening
public trust of the institution.</blockquote>

Proximity rules are common to local and state government ethics
codes nationwide (see <a href="http://www.cityethics.org/node/231&quot; target="”_blank”">my
blog post on them</a> from five years ago). They require officials
to withdraw from any matter dealing with property within a certain
distance of property they own or rent, no matter how many others have property within the same proximity. <br>
<br>

On Saturday, I attended a one-day conference on Institutional
Corruption sponsored by the Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard
University (<a href="http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid59085832001&quot; target="”_blank”">videos
of it will eventually appear here</a>). Although local government
was scarcely mentioned (there was one image of a painting that
portrayed the 1930s machine in Kansas City, MO), many ideas that

In November 2010, Broward County, FL voters approved an ethics code
for officials of the cities in the county (the code also applies to
the county commissioners). The code finally became effective January
2, 2012.<br>
<br>
Three cities in Broward County (home to Ft. Lauderdale) have put referendum questions on
the January 31 ballot seeking to strike the applicability of