Quest for Administrative Ethics in An Enemy of the People

Abstract

This article is related to the ethical problem that is faced by a public servant in his organization. It focuses on relevant ideas, such as definition and components of administrative ethics. The attempt is to find out an answer to the question: What would be the responsibility of a public servant? In order to spell out the answer to this question, the article focuses on some ideas such as virtue ethics, principle of duty, problem solving model and some form of democratic model. As a case study, I have chosen a play of Henerik Ibsen’s: An Enemy of the People. It also examines the concept of whistle blowing in the context of the play.

Share and Cite:

Anwarullah Bhuiyan, A. (2013). Quest for Administrative Ethics in An Enemy of the People. Sociology Mind, 3, 339-346. doi: 10.4236/sm.2013.34046.

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

References

[1] Aristotle (1999). Nicomahean ethics (2nd ed.). In T. Irwin (Ed.), Hacket Publishing Company Inc., Cambridge: Indianapolis Press.
[2] Beauchamp, T. L., & Childress, J. F. (2001). Principles of biomedical ethics (5th ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
[3] Burke, J. (1986). Bureaucratic responsibility. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins Press.
[4] Collste, Goran (2007). Perspective on applied ethics. Linkoping: Centre for Applied Ethics (CTE), Linkoping University.
[5] Daubert (1993). Daubert v. USA: Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
[6] Fry, B., & Nigro, L. G. (1998). Five great issues in the public administration. In J. Rabin, W. B. Hildreth, & G. J. Miller (Eds.), Handbook of public administration (2nd ed., p. 1200). USA: Phoenix.
[7] Goodsell, C. (2006). A new vision for public administration. Public Administration Review, 66.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6210.2006.00622.x
[8] Ibsen, H. (2001). An enemy of the people (translated by F. Sharp). A Play in Five Acts, A Penn State Electronic Classics Series Publication. Pennsylvania: The Pennsylvania State University Press.
[9] Machiavelli, N. (1985). The prince (translated by H. C. Mansfield Jr.). Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
[10] Machiavelli, N. (1996). Discourses on Livy (translated by H. C. Mansfield Jr., & N. Tarcov). Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
http://dx.doi.org/10.7208/chicago/9780226500331.001.0001
[11] MacIntyre, A. (2007). After virtue. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame.
[12] Maesschalck, J. (2004). The impact of new public management reforms on public servants’ ethics: Towards a theory. Public Administration, 82, 465-489.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.0033-3298.2004.00403.x
[13] Maesschalck, J. (2004-2005). Approaches to ethics management in the public sector. Public Integrity, 7, 21-41.
[14] Mansfield Jr., H. C. (1996). Machiavelli’s virtue. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
http://dx.doi.org/10.7208/chicago/9780226503721.001.0001
[15] Menzel, D. (2005). Research on ethics and integrity in governance: A review and assessment. Public Integrity, 7, 147-168.
[16] Rawls, J. (1971). A theory of justice. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
[17] Roshwald, M. (2004) The alienated moralist in an enemy of the people.
http://www.firstprinciplesjournal.com/print.aspx?article=776&loc=b&type=cbtp
[18] Schon, D. A. (1996). Educating the reflective practitioner: Toward a new design for teaching and learning in the professions. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, Inc.
[19] Svara, J. (2007). The ethics primer: For public administrators in government and nonprofit organizations. Boston: Jones and Bartlett Publishers.
[20] Velasquez, M., Andre, C., Shanks, S.J., & Meyer, M. (1987). What is ethics? Journal of Issues in Ethics, 1, 623-635.

Copyright © 2024 by authors and Scientific Research Publishing Inc.

Creative Commons License

This work and the related PDF file are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.