research consultancy
PUBLIC SERVICE, ETHICS AND DEMOCRACY
ARTICLE BY Louis C. Gawthrop, School of Public Affairs, University of Baltimore
PREAMBLE
The correlation between Public Service, Ethics and Democracy cannot be overlooked. In Uganda, the challenges and limitations faced by Public Administrators in providing services to the people is drawn right from the roots of ethics and democracy. Many Public Administrators struggle with Ethical dilemmas and moral temptation.
It is therefore important to look at these phenomenon in a broader lens.
The development of Public Administration in Uganda is strained by many factors that include low pay of the public servants, less conducive conditions of work, bureaucracy, non-streamlined reporting structures, all of these are more or less conducive conditions for unethical behaviour, which makes Public Officials tend to turn to petty corruption as a survival strategy.
Ethics is one of the vital components that allow democracy to thrive and it is critical to realising the promises of democracy in any country. It is the obligation of a government to treat everyone equally and to provide the greatest good to citizens. The effective operation of democratic government requires that public officials and employees be independent, impartial and responsible to the people. (Mariusz, Anetta & Robert).
Public Service
Merriam – Webster Learner’s Dictionary defines Public service as the business of supplying something to the members of a community for example gas, roads, electricity, among others.
Poor administration, lack of capacity and weak structures of accountability present significant barriers to successful intervention. This is one of the reasons why the Government of the Republic of Uganda has a whole Ministry of Public Service to ensure that the people get the right service at the right time.
Public service has its own values and the most important of them is: the integrity. Interpreted to cover a broad range of bureaucratic behaviour. It is used also to refer to administrative or public service ethics, to principles and standards of right conduct for public servants to promote the provision of basic public necessities to the communities.
Ethics
Ethics deal with the notion of good and evil in the action of every Public Administrator by analysing of human behaviour through the prism of ethical systems, contained, for instance in the Decalogue. (Jane & Stephen, 1999).
Democracy
A government of the People, by the People, for the People.
Public Administration at “The Creation”
It is argued that public sector ethics existed or was present “at the creation”. Public Administration was an integral part of civilization whenever and wherever civilization developed. It is implied by Dwight Waldo that from the very beginning of civilization there were individuals who were willing to serve some “higher authority”. At the earliest time of ancient history, it is apparent that there were followers who were given authority by their leaders to implement the leader’s decision.
They were expected to demonstrate ethical/moral virtues of obedience, loyalty, trust, courage and of course a willing subordination to their respective higher authorities.
Much of what is considered important elements of ethical conduct and or behavior is contained in the Decalogue (The Bible’s 10 commandments) e.g. thou shall not steal, thou shall not kill, thou shall not commit adultery, thou shall not bear false witness against thy neighbor etc. With the formulation of the 10 Commandments, it is important to note that public sector ethics existed at “the creation”. This is because the 10 Commandments acted as a systematic body of ethical/moral values, virtues and visions that promoted ideals of common good (Jay & Russel). However, these sets of ethical values and behaviors (10 Commandments) at “the creation” has suffered ethical breakdown to the extent that people are killing, people are stealing, people are committing adultery, worshiping other gods e.t,c. The breakdown of these ethical code of conduct at “the creation” has given rise to justice, law and order institutions such as police, prisons and courts of law in Uganda today.
It is still considered ethical behavior not to break the 10 commandments.
The Franciscans and the Order of St. Francis
The notion of providing aid by the Florencians and the humanitarian commitment of the Catholic religious Order of St. Francis (the Franciscans), to provide social welfare for the indigent, widows, and orphans, was carried throughout Europe centuries ago.
Likewise, the formation of humanitarian groups like the United Nations, World Food Program, Human Rights Commission, Action Aid International, among others today, is a clear demonstration of ethical values & virtues.
Unforeseen circumstances like war and insurgency, disease outbreaks, natural disasters among others have seen these humanitarian groups intervene to rescue the people and provide basic assistance like health care, food, shelter and clothing among others.
It can be argued that these humanitarian groups provide public services with consideration of ethical and moral values that in turn promotes democracy.
Max Webber’s Theory
Max Weber’s description of the ideal bureaucratic system can be extrapolated that bureaucracy was, in effect, also “present at the creation.” The bureaucratic system transformed the system of governance and the objective was that an individual could access service delivery efficiently.
Ethical values like stability, continuity, competence, integrity, loyalty had been infused in the National Government of the federalist administrators.
Bureaucracy is a system most used in the Ugandan Administrative system to enhance efficiency and ensure that there is effective service delivery to the citizenry.
Although it has drawbacks like creating delays in the system and therefore in service delivery, it is undoubtedly true that bureaucracy puts in place checks and balances to make sure all the rules and regulations are abided with. It includes elements like clearly defined job roles, a hierarchy of authority, standardized procedures, meticulous record-keeping and hiring employees only if they meet the specific qualifications for a job.
It is considered ethical to provide service to the people efficiently and effectively.
19th Century progressive Era and Management system
The 19th Century saw the emergency of the progressive movement which came with a number of measures designed to infuse the contaminated machinery of government with democratic/moral values, virtues and visions. The progressive’s major significant thrust was the restoration of a sense of fairness, justice and integrity that would serve the public in the mode of the democratic ideal. Its emphasis was on professionalism which shortly became the cornerstone of the management service movement. The professionalism sought by the progressive reformers after the jump from the progressive era to the management service era resulted in the creation of a cadre of career minded public servants who were committed to the ethical/ moral values of the democratic ideal which resulted in the convergence of the notion of efficiency.
Governments usually come up with measures wherever there has been contamination of government machinery to ensure restoration of the sense of public service. Aspects like fairness, justice and integrity are measures that the government can come up with to restore democracy and public service. These help in creating democratic ideals which help in shaping the public service and also restore the sense of ethics in the approach of civil and public service.
For example when there was a breakdown of the system by corruption, the government of Uganda came up with laws that would help curb the vice. Measures like creation of the Anti-corruption court, the Inspectorate of Government and the anti-corruption coalition of Uganda among others are the machinery that the government uses to ensure efficient and effective service delivery to the citizens.
As in the 19th Century, some measures embraced by the government bring in a sense of professionalism, the essence of moral values and ethics should be for everyone and not for the few government officials who chose to serve the people. Professionalism enhances efficiency in Public administration and enhances good governance, civic service, civic honor and integrity. The ideal Public service should be that which respects the aspects of fairness, justice and integrity.
The 1920 New Vision of bureaucratic mode
The Era of the 1920 came with the notion that “the government that governs least governs best”. It led to the creation of a new vision of a bureaucratic mode and one of the few activists pre-occupation of federal governments and sub systems across the nations looked to be the enforcement of a clear force. The closed impersonal mechanistic bureaucratic systems were reduced to the maintenance of house-keeping chores. As a result, without any wide spread of ethics and morals, it caused desperacy in the state.
Administration therefore, needs ethics because without ethics, the state is paralyzed and desperate.
It is not necessarily true that a government that governs least governs best. Governments should do everything in its powers to govern to the best of their abilities.
The New Deal
The New Deal was introduced in the 1930’s under President Franklin D. Roosevelt at the end of the 2nd world war, it could be assumed that just like the period following the First World War, there would be a “return to normalcy”, but instead, this period was characterized by increase in marriages, demand for affordable housing, college enrolments by the youth, geographic mobility and social diversity. There was extensive damage to the industrial and residential sectors throughout Europe, Colonial empires were fragmented into sovereign nation states and a new global institution the United Nations was created to bring nation states together into an international forum. It led to the expansion not only in the role but also in the size of the central government. International policy decisions became more expansive and complex.
The new set of rules and policies by President Roosevelt, were aimed at improvement of the standards of living of the people who were struck by the Great Depression. Systems and institutions were put in place to ensure better conditions of living for the citizens and jobs were created.
Post World War 2
The Post World War two period was formalized by Nobel Laureate Herbert. It resulted in the adoption of decision making schema which is referred to as Pluralistic Bargaining Increamental System, which was tried before WW2 but failed. It was assumed that it was “Economic man” who always thought to maximize his returns by choosing the alternative which would yield maximum benefits. In order to be efficient, the public administrative officials had to be well versed with the PBI system i.e. an idea that yielded the best results was considered most. It involved a lot of democracy and ethics, it was designed to minimize dissension and maximize satisficing as far as the bargained decisions were concerned. The public was involved in the decision making only through the actions of the bonafide interest group representatives.
Whereas there many interest groups in Uganda today, the Parliament of the Republic of Uganda provides for all these interest groups in the constitution. There is always room to amend the laws to fit the needs of society, the circumstances at the time, among others; citizens are allowed to indulge in the decision making process through their representatives. Representation of different people at all levels is evident putting into consideration special interest groups like the people with disability, the elderly and the opposition parties.
Objectivity in Public Administration creates transparency which is a very important element in service delivery.
New Public Management
New Public Management, introduced after the Planning Programming Budgeting System (PPBS) which was the system being used before the Jimmy Carter Regime. The PPBS was replaced by the Management by Objectives (MBO), which was replaced by a more rational-comprehensive system identified as Zero-Based Budgeting (ZBB) with the coming of Jimmy Carter as the President.
Just as George, 1980 puts it; the primary instrument of our success in this century is neither our military powers nor our wealth, but our most successful social invention. It can be argued that New Public Management/New Public Administration flows directly from the values that guided traditional public administration.
In our contemporary Ugandan Public Administration, NPM is very applicable in the sense that government agencies like National Water and Sewerage Corporation (NWSC), Uganda Revenue Authority (URA), Uganda National Roads Authority (UNRA) and Kampala City Council Authority (KCCA) among others operate their business like the private sector. Aspects like decentralization of units, output controls, hire of employees according to their fit for the job requirements, have been adopted by these agencies.
This creates a more inclusive approach with the customers; we have seen NWSC hold forums like the Water Baraza, where Management and customers come together to discuss about issues that aggrieve the customers and Management finds a way forward, the Corporation has carried out Corporate Social Responsibility as a way to give back to the societies, who are also the “customers”. It is believed, from the ancient days of our forefathers that giving back is a very ethical moral. The Baganda have a saying that goes “Okudiza guba mwoyo” which if translated means giving back is love.
New public Management therefore has caused clear transformation of the public sector administration and its operations to a more well defined and streamlined sector.
In conclusion therefore, it may be argued that the linkage between ethics and democracy is, to a significant extent, forged by the calibre and character of how the public service is advanced in the name of democracy.
REFERENCES
Jane G. Kazman & Stephen J. Bonczek, 1999. Ethics in Action, ICCMA, Washington
Jay M. Shafritz & E. W. Russell; Introducing Public Administration
- George Fredrickson 1980 Public Management & Administration (4th Ed.); The University of Alabama
Mariusz Dmochowski, Anetta Jurczuk, Robert Szczepankowski; Ethics in Public Administration
Waldo, Dwight. 1980. The Enterprise of Public Administration. Novato, CA: Chandler and Sharp.
