Ethics of Public Administration - Kangzhi Zhang (Ji Baocheng)
Public management ethics is an emerging interdisciplinary discipline proposed on the basis of public management science becoming an explicit science, and administrative ethics is no longer used. In the book, the author constantly proposes the difference and connection between public management ethics and administrative ethics, and we can see the inevitability of its emergence. Of course, this book is both a textbook and a research result, mainly for the MPA level reading textbook, many of the ideas in the book are the author's personal ideas, the author also suggests that we should read the book critically, rather than unreservedly accepted.
The book has a total of twelve chapters, the first chapter is an introduction, mainly to introduce the basic information such as the emergence, nature, research object methods and tasks, and discipline position of public management ethics; the second to fourth chapters are mainly to explore the embodiment of public management ethics in public management activities; chapters 5 to 12 are mainly to explore how public management ethics reflects and applies public managers in the process of management activities.
First, the basic situation of public management ethics.
The discipline of ethics has a long history, but there has never been a true era of ethics in human society. When human beings entered agricultural civilization, it was a "power system" social governance model in the system; in the era of industrial civilization, human beings entered the "legal system" social governance model in the system; post-industrial society, human beings may be committed to building a "moral system" social governance model. Therefore, under the social governance model of the moral system, the emergence of public management relations has prompted ethics to give birth to a new type of ethics, that is, public management ethics, which explores the spirit of service and cooperation mechanism in public management professional activities. Public management relations are very complex social relations system, but the interest relationship is still the most basic relationship, but the public management re-adjustment of social interests is different from the previous social governance model, it is through the establishment and cultivation of service relations to achieve the organic integration of interest relations, and the institutional form of service relations is the moral system. The ethics of public administration is precisely through the study of public management relations to discover a feasible way to build morality.
The study of public management ethics has a fundamental significance in the multidisciplinary discipline system of public management, and unlike the previous humanities and social sciences, public management ethics is not based on the social division of labor as the starting point of research, but with social groups as the premise of the narrative. Therefore, its focus is first and foremost not on the individual in professional activity, but on the group in professional activity, and it studies the problem of ethical system and moral mechanism from the group, and only under this premise does it study the question of the moralization of individual behavior. The focus of public management ethics is on the study of ethical relations, revealing the significance of the development of ethical relations for the reform of human social governance models.
The tasks of public management ethics research are: to describe the basic characteristics of public management as a new social governance model; to reveal the essence of public management; to provide basic principles for the construction of the discipline system of public management; and to put forward the concept of institutional design under the concept of service. The research method of public management ethics is the method of "historical realism" or "realistic historicism", which is the specific application of Marxist materialist dialectics. (Supplement: In the disciplinary system of public administration, it generally includes: (1) general research on public administration; (2) main body research of public management; (3) institutional research of public management; (4) research on tools of public management; (5) research on behavioral patterns of public management; (6) research on public management ethics. ）
Second, the embodiment of public management ethics in public management activities.
(1) The market economy is the key to understanding all social development since modern times, and the transformation of modern society from a ruling government to a management government and the arrangement of the legal system are all based on the inherent demand of the market economy for freedom and equality. However, the management-oriented government and the legal system cannot fully meet the requirements of the market economy, but on the contrary, the differentiation of society and the separation of the state and society have intensified. Therefore, under the impetus of the market economy, mankind has begun to explore the stage of public management, a new social governance model.
(2) Social autonomy is the opportunity for the emergence of a new social governance model of public management. As a result of social autonomy, the original social governance monopolized by the state and the government was broken, and the state and the government began to be placed in a competitive relationship with the society's own public management organizations, and a dualistic situation of public management subjects appeared. The emergence of this new content of social governance relations will inevitably bring about changes in the entire social governance model. In agricultural society, human beings have a dominant social governance model, which is characterized by tyranny; what is highlighted is an oppressive ability, which in the individual is manifested as a predatory quality and dependence; in the art of governance, it is manifested as "divide and rule". In modern society, the management-oriented social governance model pursues social justice on the surface, but in essence serves the interests of a small number of people, and its governance of society still follows the practice of "divide and rule". Managerial social governance highlights the spirit and principles of contract, but is only subordinate to the arrangement of the legal system, rather than existing as an ethical spirit. As a result of the emergence of social autonomy, the spirit of contract began to change its nature, thus transforming into an ethical spirit, becoming an important factor in enhancing social homogeneity, and creating a cooperative institutional system of public administration.
(3) The realization of the public interest can only be placed on the service administration, although the service administration still contains the power factor, but the power factor will be strictly limited to the administrative sense. The development and improvement of this new social governance model of public management put forward objective requirements for the study of public management ethics, and the development history of administrative science highlights the ethical core of social governance science when it appears in the form of public management. The inevitability of historical development and the logic of scientific development both highlight the significance of the study of public management ethics. At the same time, the reality of the 20th century and the historical characteristics of the period of social transition also highlight the significance of the study of public management ethics.
(4) In the new social governance model of public management, there are power relations, legal relations and ethical relations. Public management has made a service positioning for itself, and the generation of ethical relations in public management is based on its service intention, along a logical channel from service expectations to the moral consciousness of management subjects to the generation of ethical relations. Ethical relations become the basic relations in public management and further determine the moralization of specific behavioral choices in public management.
The dominant social governance model is mainly based on power relations, the management social governance model is mainly based on the dual integration of power relations and legal relations, and only public management is based on power relations, legal relations and ethical relations. Ethical relations in public administration are a new type of social governance relationship and professional relationship, which is different from the action line of power relations and legal relations. Ethical relations are first of all the ethical relations of individual group members in public management organizations, and secondly, the ethical relations between organizations and groups, and its line of action is based on the individual. Active cooperation and effective coordination among the members of the organization are achieved through individuals and then rise to the group level. Ethical relations have the characteristics of openness, equality, concreteness, integrity, non-exchange, non-gifting and objectivity, so only social action based on ethical relations is true collective action.
Only when the power relations are loosened can it be possible to establish a social governance method based on the rule of law, which is a product of the historical development of society. When the social group reaches a certain extent and multiple interests coexist, in order to meet the requirements of multiple interests, the rule of law has been objectively formed in historical evolution, and the rule of law has carried out social governance according to the objectivity and universality of the law, but there is incompleteness and ambiguity in expression. In the service-oriented social governance model of public management, with the rule of virtue as the marker, the authority of morality is used to dominate power and the authority of the law, and the rule of law and the rule of virtue are unified, so that the rule of law can give full play to the function of social governance. Of course, in public management activities, the rule of virtue cannot only be used as a means of governance, but on the basis of the moral system, we must improve the rule of virtue, establish the system, and give play to the educational function of the system, so that the rule of virtue can become a stable mode of social governance.
Finally, public management ethics are seen from the perspective of public managers.
(1) People have multiple social roles, in modern society, professional roles are the basic form of human roles, and the professional role of public managers is the unity of social choices and his personal independent choices. People's professional behavior determines people's professional roles, or people choose professional roles and enter professional roles through their own behavior. Their behavior is not driven by external forces, but acts autonomously and voluntarily. Man has a dual life, namely natural life and social life. Man's social life is the essence of man's social life and the result of man's self-selection. In modern society, professional activity is the main way for man to obtain social life, so we can say that man chooses his social life through career choice. Public management ethics advocates the unity of man's natural life and social life, proves the value of his natural life in professional activities, and fully displays the content of his social life in personal life. Therefore, the understanding of public managers needs to be viewed from the perspective of the main body of professional activities. They are not masters and servants of society, but only practitioners of social governance activities, so that they can give up any sense of privilege and thus obtain a universal spirit of service on the basis of equality. The relationship between public managers built on the basis of this profession is also a real equal relationship, with hierarchies but professional personalities equal. The moral capacity of public managers is paramount.
(2) The existence of man is a trinity, that is, physical existence, spiritual existence and moral existence, of which moral existence is the highest level of human existence, the biochemistry and transcendence of human physical existence and spiritual existence. Man's moral existence is the deepest and most essential existence of man, the essence that is continuously acquired in social development, group generation and personal growth, and the whole process of human social development is the continuous acquisition of this essence. Conscience is the core content of human moral existence, the highest expression of moral existence and the highest realization of social relations. That is to say, conscience, as the embodiment of social rationality, group rationality or professional rationality, is the highest realization of social, group and professional ethics in the individual, and is the ultimate moral existence of man. Conscience, therefore, is the most essential form of existence among all the essential stipulations of man. Recognizing this trinity of human existence is not only a correct and comprehensive grasp of the essence of man, but also a one-sided mistake can be avoided in proposing a plan for social transformation and system construction. Therefore, in post-industrial society, the knowledge and grasp of man's moral existence is the theoretical basis for all social life and activities.
(3) Responsibilities and obligations are provisions on the mission of man's social role, which reflects the social relations of people, or the social relations of people mediated by things. In the social governance system, responsibilities and obligations are linked to people's positions. The responsibility and obligation under the dominant social governance structure is a kind of "quasi-administrative responsibility obligation"; under the modern management social structure, it is mainly composed of administrative responsibility obligation and legal responsibility obligation; while under the public management social governance model, administrative responsibility obligation, legal responsibility obligation and moral responsibility obligation are integrated into a unified functional whole in public managers through public management activities. The responsibility and obligation system of public management is a system composed of objective responsibility obligations and subjective responsibility obligations. Administrative responsibility obligations and legal responsibility obligations are mainly objective responsibility obligations, while moral responsibility obligations are subjective responsibility obligations, and the public manager's choice of responsibility obligations is a creative choice, which is the process of transforming objective responsibility obligations into subjective responsibility obligations.
Responsibility and obligation are mainly manifested in the scope of public administration as: benevolence, justice, truth-seeking, tolerance, and moderation.
(4) Virtue is the component of man's moral existence, the expression of moral existence, and the transformation of thought and behavior from man's moral existence is played through virtue. For all human moral behavior, virtue is the most direct and fundamental driving force. Virtue has a wide range of values for man's social life. Man has lust and virtue, as a natural creature, man must be a slave to lust, but man as a whole of existence, the way his interests are realized, and the value of existence determine the need to use virtue to control lust. Individual people do not need virtue, but when people are connected with society, and people have an impact on others, groups, and even society as a whole, the importance of virtue is self-evident. There is self-selection in the process of the generation of virtue of public managers, which is consistent with the profession of public administration, which is a historical choice, so that the choice of occupation by public managers is the result of double choice.
(5) Among the social behavior of human beings, faith-based behavior is by far one of the most important social phenomena. But the essence of this kind of behavior, people do not grasp well. Beliefs are associated with power relations, which tend to produce beliefs. The act of faith appears to be moral on the surface, but in fact it is the most selfish, and only what can be achieved in real life can produce universal behavior that meets the needs of human social life.
(6) All human behavior contains a value factor, and further, all human conscious behavior has a clear value goal. Both individual action and collective action contain value, and collective action is becoming more and more prominent. The value goal of professional behavior is the basic concept of professional group to carry out professional activities, and it is the basic spirit and principle that runs through all the activities and behaviors of professional practitioners.
Public management highlights the problem of service value, the dominant social governance model highlights the value of social hierarchical order, and the management social governance model highlights fairness and efficiency. In the study of the value of public management services, public management ethics attempts to go beyond the traditional methodology of the whole and the individual, the collective and the individual, and requires that the institutional design and institutional arrangement of public management be understood on the basis of service value, and the behavior mode of public managers should be grasped. Similarly, in public management, there will be a problem of value conflicts, and the most basic value conflicts are various forms of conflicts between power, law and service concepts, which can only be resolved in the strengthening of service concepts. The moral existence of public managers also needs to be in line with the professional rationality of the profession of public management, and the service spirit and principles in the institutional arrangement are internalized into their own basic value orientation, so as to unify other value scales and value standards in the activities, so as to ensure that they always adhere to the correct direction in value selection.
The value choice of public managers has irreplaceable significance for the establishment of service value. The public interest is the objective basis for the public manager's value selection, he serves the public interest, and the realization of the public interest is even if the professional regulations of the public manager are his value pursuit. The value of the public management system and the value of the individual public manager are unified according to the value choice of the public manager.
(7) Personality is a social regulation, the overall realization of social relations in the individual, the moral existence of people reflected in the moral behavior of people, and the comprehensive overall characteristics of human moral existence and moral behavior that are expressed in human personality. The revolutionary change in the history of social governance, a new type of social governance model, is marked by the acquisition of independent personality by public managers. Independent personality, independence and autonomy is both a sign of human morality and a reference to human personality, the specific embodiment is human self-esteem, the self-esteem and dignity of public managers is a thing, dignity comes from self-esteem, mutual correspondence and mutual premise, only self-respect can get the respect of others. The unity of respect and respect, self-esteem and other respect, is the ideal form in all social relations of all human beings.
Man's moral cultivation is the activity of consciously recognizing, restoring and rebuilding his moral existence. The immoral factors that man receives in the process of acquired learning and education hinder the conformity of man with social, group or professional reason, and the moral existence of man fails to become his conscious existence. In order to awaken people's moral existence, the positive approach is self-cultivation. The true meaning of moral cultivation means that it is a process of cultivating and quenching people's moral existence, making people's physical existence and spiritual existence consistent and coordinated with moral existence, and making physical existence and spiritual existence as possible infused with the content of moral existence, so as to realize the moralization of people as a whole and reflect it as moral personality. The professional personality of the public manager is formed in his professional activities, and his conscious moral cultivation in professional activities can enable him to achieve the goal of perfecting the personality of public management. In public management activities, following the service spirit of the public management system, in line with the attitude of cooperative governance, to make behavioral choices for public management, it will move forward in the direction of shaping the personality of public management bit by bit. Moral cultivation is an important way to shape personality, and since ancient times, people have paid attention to the significance of people's moral cultivation. For the generation of human personality, moral education does not play the expected role as people think.
Morality is not acquired in education, morality is at all times the intuition and intuition of the ethical relationship between people, the awakening of man's moral existence. The main way to generally improve the moral level of a society is to lay the social governance structure on the basis of real ethical relations, and to carry out institutional design and institutional arrangements according to the actual ethical spirit. The purpose of all education is only to help specific individuals improve their ability to adapt to existing modes of life, and never to teach them how to create a new mode of life. The mode of political life that truly belongs to all citizens of a society is in fact the sum of the formalization of the political concepts and moral consciousness of all citizens of that society. A pattern of political life comes neither from the apocalypse nor from the design and arrangement of the sages, but is created by all the members of this society.
Public management ethics believes that the fundamental way out of the construction of social morality is the construction of a moral system, that is, the establishment of an institutional system of morality. In this way, the basic function of ethical research should be to devote itself to institutional design, even if it is a specific sub-discipline of ethics, and it should also contribute to institutional design in specific research fields, rather than staying at the level of individual moral cultivation of people, let alone out of the intention of indoctrination. That is to say, public management ethics does not belong to the ethics of personal cultivation, it reverses the idea of personal cultivation ethics, requiring the study of ethics to first serve the construction of the system, that is, to devote itself to the construction of an ethical system that transcends the modern legal system, which can also be called the moral system, and is a higher type of institutional model that condenses the positive achievements of all the legal system.