Public Integrity

Those who decide to participate in politics or those who choose to hold public office must inevitably make moral and ethical choices. The morality of both these processes and the outcomes of political decisions often go unexamined. J. Patrick Dobel examines the bases of moral choice in politics, the manner in which citizens and elected officials make these choices, and the moral implications of the political decision making process. He has brought his research efforts to bear in his book, and superbly addresses the complexities of human nature with the obligations and requirements of public service. Recognizing that there are differences as to what constitutes moral principles and behaviors, Dobel argues that whatever the source, integrity and judgment form the bedrock of public morality. He focuses squarely on the individual as a "complex moral being" and his conclusions, void of any concrete prescriptions or "quick fixes," presents insight into the dilemmas and conflicts plaguing public officials. Dobel believes that "the moral structure of holding office - whether legislative or executive, elected, appointed or career - is the same. All involve people in a promise to live up to obligations of office in a web of reliance and to frame their judgments by standards embedded in the office's responsibilities" (p. xi). It is this concept of integrity that anchors ethics, "fosters high quality decisions and supports the delegations of power" (p. 213). The absence of integrity leads to the erosion of trust in government, ineptness, duplicity and arrogance. Individuals holding public office in a liberal democracy are presumed to be moral agents capable of maintaining personal integrity while enduring the strains and stresses of their obligations. He develops his exposé of public integrity through parallelisms with personal integrity suggesting that public integrity involve the integration of personal beliefs, commitments, practical choice and action. Dobel suggests that public integrity is not obtained through subordination of personal commitments, judicious actions or constraints of the office itself, but rather through mastering the art of judgment. Using thematically related essays focusing on classical and modern political theory, Dobel draws on philosophical perspectives, fictional analogies, case studies, memoirs, and interviews in describing how public integrity requires a balance between the "personal and the public, [and] not on their total separation from each other" (p. 214). Dobel views public integrity as a balance between three domains, each containing at least one crucial domain of reasoning. Dobel weaves these domains into a fourth model of integrity, a "triangle model" of public responsibility and commitment, and identifies which none of the domains independent of each other, can adequately meet. Dobel argues that this triangle model is more adaptable to the concept of public integrity since integrity is a "iterative proc