Book Reviews

Edward T. Hall's classic book, <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=reByw3FWVWsC&printsec=frontcover&dq=be…; target="”_blank”"><i>Beyond
Culture</i></a> (Anchor Books, 1976), is not a government ethics book.
But a lot of the wisdom in this brilliant book can be applied to our
field.<br>
<br>

In ethics, there are two basic approaches: (1) an ends-based
approach, also referred to as utilitarian or consequentialist; and
(2) a means-based approach, also referred to as rules-based or
deontological. Government officials, and most people when speaking
about government, generally use the former, while government ethics
uses the latter. This causes a lot of problems.<br>
<br>
Therefore, it is very heartening to see an academic taking a
critical look at ends-based approaches to solving a governmental

After reading <a href="http://www.cityethics.org/content/bridging-gulf-between-administrative-…; target="”_blank”">my recent blog post about bridging the gulf between administrative
and government ethics</a>, one of the great scholars of public
administration, George Frederickson, sent me a copy of a 2009
lecture of his, which appeared in 2010 in the journal <i>Public

<br><b>Self-Evaluation and Getting One's Bearings</b><br>
To change oneself (and to support change in one's environment),
self-evaluation is required. Before you change, you have to have
your bearings. The problem is that, unlike evaluation of others,
self-evaluation is rarely rational. It is more commonly emotional,
taking "the rosiest possible interpretation of the facts," according

<b>You Can't Teach Ethics</b><br>
In their book <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Switch-Change-Things-When-Hard/dp/0385528752/&quot; target="”_blank”">Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard</a></i> (Crown, 2010), Chip
and Dan Heath say that there are two kinds of mindset:  the fixed
mindset and the growth mindset. Those with a fixed mindset believe that

<b>Why Scandals Lead to Poor Ethics Reform</b><br>
In their book <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Switch-Change-Things-When-Hard/dp/0385528752/&quot; target="”_blank”">Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard</a></i> (Crown, 2010), Chip
and Dan Heath note that John Kotter and Dan Cohen argue in their

There is a great deal of thought-provoking material in Chip and Dan
Heath's book <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Switch-Change-Things-When-Hard/dp/0385528752/&quot; target="”_blank”">Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard</a></i>
(Crown, 2010). Change has proved hard in every single city and
county in the United States. Those seeking government ethics reform
can learn a lot from this book.<br>

<br>
In memory of Albert O.Hirschman, an important economist and
political scientist who died last month, I want to apply some of the

<br>I don't talk much in this blog or in my book <a href="http://www.cityethics.org/ethics%20book&quot; target="”_blank”"><i>Local Government
Ethics Programs</i></a> about character. However, there is another approach to
government ethics that is sometimes referred to as "the character
approach." For example, the <a href="http://josephsoninstitute.org/">Josephson