Abstract
This paper examines the relevance of John Dewey’s theses on ethics in
public life to questions arising from today’s broad range of public service
delivery systems. As more public goods and services are delivered by third
parties, questions about how communication and responsibility flow in those
systems take on new importance. When public goods and services are provided
by governmental agencies, the ethical structure of rules and procedures in
those agencies have been held out as means of assuring accountable
government. When those goods and services are delivered by third parties, as
is increasingly the case today, accountability must be built into the
contracts developed between government and those third parties. The question
then centers on how well contracts assure responsible and ethical action,
and whether the ethical challenges of the new public management movement can
be resolved through a different, Deweyan, approach to decision
making—communities of inquiry.
Dewey’s ethical position was characterized by his contemporary critics as
one of moral relativism. He certainly advocated using experience as a basis
for ethical decision making rather than relying upon fundamental abstract
standards. He also held that retrospective evaluation of actual behavior,
rather than reliance on structured rules, allows for a more complete and
contextual account of public action. He argued against responsibility
defined as assigning blame, and for responsibility couched in terms of
covenant rather than contract. This paper will explore whether Dewey’s
argument might provide a better definition of responsibility and ethical
action than that which we currently impose on these important issues |