Publicizing Ethics Reform

It is not enough to reform a city's ethics program. One must also let the world know about it. Most municipalities reform their ethics in a vacuum. They might look at a nearby town or city, or two, but the people in charge rarely know what is happening elsewhere, what are the norms and what are the latest reforms. This is one of the reasons we have put this website together.

Until recently, Chinese orphanages, run by municipalities, gave their orphans two kinds of surnames, either a part of the name of the municipality or something that would be translated as 'state' or 'party' (as in Communist party) The names were not common, and they were all the same, so they marked orphans as orphans their whole lives (since it is hard to change your name in China).

Then, last year, the city of Dalian, in northeast China, changed its practice, and said it would give all orphans common surnames. The city did this openly, and it drew a great deal of attention, so that many other municipalities changed their practices, as well. From now on, Chinese orphans will not be marked for life.

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So if your municipality decides to make improvements to its ethics program, don't just let local reporters know. Get the word out, be proud of what you've done, talk about the good it will do and how important openness and ethics are to getting people to participate in government, to making our municipalities more truly democratic. Let me know as well, or write a blog entry yourself and place it here.

Robert Wechsler
Director of Research-Retired, City Ethics