Ethics Codes in National Administrations: A Comparison of Eight European Countries
Juvani, Anni (2010)
Juvani, Anni
2010
Kuvaus
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Tiivistelmä
Citizens’ trust in the administration is considered very important. Public sector ethics explores among other topics the retention and increase of this trust. The recent multiplication of public sector ethics codes presents an interesting research subject for a comparative document analysis. The idea behind these codes is that a public administration forms a community with shared ethical values. The concept of ethics code refers in this thesis to a government-issued, state-level ethics code. The codes in this study share a functional similarity (the description of aspirational behavior/values and the setting of standards for behavior) and a temporal similarity (created approximately in the last decade). The studied countries are Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland and the United Kingdom.
This thesis studies the extent to which the form and the substance of the ethics code is linked with the levels of institutional trust and of corruption. The method used in this study is comparison. The thesis incorporates two separate comparisons to answer the research question. The levels of institutional trust and of corruption are explored through a configurative comparative technique called the Qualitative Paired Comparison (QPC). In parallel to the QPC the ethics codes are analyzed with the help of a frame-work. It includes elements of the form and basic contents; of regulations of conduct and of values.
The research assumption is that low levels of corruption and high levels of institutional trust encourage an integrity-based approach and high levels of corruption and low levels of institutional trust force into compliance-based approach. In the summary of the two comparisons a link can be found between the levels of corruption and of trust and the form and substance of the compared ethics codes. The results of the QPC group the studied countries into two clusters. The cluster with a lower level of corruption and a higher level of trust connects with a detailed, booklet-style ethics code with explicitly coded values. The cluster with a higher level of corruption and a lower level of trust is linked with a short, to-the-point document specifying required behavior and in which values are not explicitly coded.
The research assumption appears to be confirmed by the results, but this conclusion cannot be made without certain reservations. The framework for comparing ethics codes showed that half of the compared elements were found in all the ethics codes. Findings of this study appear also to be the discovery of rapid developments in the field of public ethics management in Europe. There seems to be an emerging European-level agreement on the standards of good conduct for civil servants. This development is visible in the several model ethics codes and ethics frameworks created either by a common European agreement or by non-state actors.
This thesis studies the extent to which the form and the substance of the ethics code is linked with the levels of institutional trust and of corruption. The method used in this study is comparison. The thesis incorporates two separate comparisons to answer the research question. The levels of institutional trust and of corruption are explored through a configurative comparative technique called the Qualitative Paired Comparison (QPC). In parallel to the QPC the ethics codes are analyzed with the help of a frame-work. It includes elements of the form and basic contents; of regulations of conduct and of values.
The research assumption is that low levels of corruption and high levels of institutional trust encourage an integrity-based approach and high levels of corruption and low levels of institutional trust force into compliance-based approach. In the summary of the two comparisons a link can be found between the levels of corruption and of trust and the form and substance of the compared ethics codes. The results of the QPC group the studied countries into two clusters. The cluster with a lower level of corruption and a higher level of trust connects with a detailed, booklet-style ethics code with explicitly coded values. The cluster with a higher level of corruption and a lower level of trust is linked with a short, to-the-point document specifying required behavior and in which values are not explicitly coded.
The research assumption appears to be confirmed by the results, but this conclusion cannot be made without certain reservations. The framework for comparing ethics codes showed that half of the compared elements were found in all the ethics codes. Findings of this study appear also to be the discovery of rapid developments in the field of public ethics management in Europe. There seems to be an emerging European-level agreement on the standards of good conduct for civil servants. This development is visible in the several model ethics codes and ethics frameworks created either by a common European agreement or by non-state actors.