Ethical issues arising from public administration are quite complex and difficult. Using a monistic normative ethical approach to these issues may not be very helpful. Thus James Svara’s three-pronged approach to public administration ethics is proposed in order to show its plausibility. The case of Dr Stockman in Henrik Ibsen’s play An Enemy of the People is examined as a way of demonstrating the significance of Svara’s model.
AdamsG.BalfourD. (2008). Ethical leadership and administrative evil: The distorting effect of technical rationality. In HubertsL.MaesschalckJ.JurkiewiczC. (Eds), Ethics and integrity of governance: Perspectives across frontiers (pp. 85–100). Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar.
2.
BurkeJ. (1994). Administrative ethics and democratic theory. In CooperT. (Ed.), Handbook of administrative ethics (pp. 457–472). New York: Marcel Dekker.
3.
CoadyC.A.J. (2008). Messy morality: The challenge of politics. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
4.
GarofaloC.GeurasD. (2009). Administrative leadership and transparency. In Cox IIIR. (Ed.), Ethics and integrity in public administration: Concepts and cases (pp. 65–76). Armonk, New York: M.E. Sharpe.
5.
HerringE.P. (1997). Public administration and the public interest. In ShafritzJ.HydeA. (Eds), Classics of public administration, Fourth edition (pp. 76–80). New York: Harcourt Brace.
6.
IbsenH. (1970). Ibsen: Four major plays, Vol. II. FjeldeR. (Trans.). New York: New American Library.
7.
MartinM. (2001). Everyday morality: An introduction to applied ethics, Third edition. Ontario, Canada: Wadsworth.
8.
SheeranP. (1993). Ethics in public administration: A philosophical approach. Westport, CT: Praeger.
9.
SvaraJ. (2007). The ethics primer for public administrators in government and nonprofit organizations. Sudbury, Massachusetts: Jones and Bartlett Publishers.
10.
WilliamsB. (2011). Ethics and the limits of philosophy. London: Routledge.
11.
YatesD. (1981). Hard choices: Justifying bureaucratic decisions. In FleishmanJ.LiebmanL.MooreM.H. (Eds), Public duties: The moral obligations of government officials (pp. 32–51). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
