Suchergebnisse

Given the doctrine of neutral competence, the question of a duty to resign rarely arises for civil servants. Ethical obligations are fulfilled by loyally carrying out the instructions of legitimate superiors. If however, one is persuaded that the public is better served by civil servants who, acting in terms of an agency perspective-their public trust-formulate a principled conception of the public's interest that they believe they have an obligation to promote, even against the wishes of superiors and public alike, the case is different. Civil servants in such a case may feel they owe the public, as Burke told the electors of Bristol, their independent best judgment, not their servile acquiescence in what they believe may harm the public they are sworn to serve. Given the importance of the independence and integrity of civil servants' judgments and the gravity of those judgments, ongoing principled development of the meaning of the public interest-improving our practice as we work—is a high-priority task.

Somehow we have lost sight of what ought to be the bottom line for the polity: the condition of the individual Political science, public administration, urban politics, and policy analysis have all lost sight of this concern that was once the focus of classical political philosophy. We must establish systematic inventories of the principal dimensions of the human condition against which we can make comparisons as actors, structures, and processes change.

The related fields of political science, public administration, and policy analysis sorely need a standard for evaluating the outcomes, management structures, and processes, programs, and policies. The appropriate standard for evaluation is the much-maligned and often forgotten concept of the public interest. We can assess the public interest by projecting and evaluating consequences in terms of agreed-upon values-values our common sense tells us rank highly in measuring the quality of people's lives. The agreed-upon consequences and the sometimes competing values must then be weighed in a structured and reasoned argument.