January 28, 2004

Message from the Director:
The ethics factor for our next president

What kind of role should ethics play in the choice Americans will make in the upcoming presidential election? Here I will draw on several classic approaches to ethics to suggest how those resources could serve a president and administration committed to employ moral practices and judgment in the processes of governance. Each of these ethics approaches can contribute to illumine moral dimensions of presidential policies and decisions. Taken together, perhaps they can provide useful ethical criteria for discernment and choice as we participate in the debates and the choosing of our president for 2005-2008.

I hope that our next president will have and work from an ethical grounding, and that he will choose a vice president, advisors and cabinet members who share his/her ethical commitments. It is vital that our leaders recognize that law and public policy, in the long run, must be kept accountable to fairness, justice, and compassion. How do we test candidates for an ethical compass? How do we define or identify the qualities of thought and leadership that would reflect both ethical commitment and ethical competence? What qualities and approaches should we expect from a president and administration steered by an ethical compass? I suggest the following:

  • A firm commitment to principles of justice, fairness, and inclusiveness. This means an allegiance to human rights, to equal opportunity for education, healthcare, and viable work, and for a living wage for all our citizens. A president and his cabinet should be able to articulate the principles that underlie these values, and to lead in restoring ethical language for public discussion and decision-making.
  • An honoring and guarding of the freedoms that constitute our Bill of Rights. This includes respecting the privacy of citizens, safeguarding the freedom of expression and public advocacy for the rights of all citizens. It includes honoring rights of participatory access to the political processes that keep government, at all levels, accountable to the people.
  • A balancing of the pragmatism of electoral politics with an effective, healing commitment to nurture the long-term growth in citizen loyalty, capacity and participation in the body-politic
  • Leading the public in restoring a long-range vision of the future of this nation and its role in the world, and leading us in maturing toward a global politics based on a long perspective, principled ethics, and mutual respect with other nations.
Notice how frequently I have used the phrase “long-term.” It seems clear that at the heart of our present crises we must recognize the dominance, in business, government, and social policies, of short-term thinking, combined with narrow and short-sighted commitment to the politics of possessive individualism.

As part of his background, character and competence, I hope the president we elect in 2004 will have at hand, and be able to articulate, ethical groundings for the policies and initiatives he will advocate. Ethical principles, if clearly and convincingly expressed, can frame issues in terms of fairness, justice, and long term interests of this nation and its people. Such a candidate would insist, as part of the qualifications for cabinet members and top advisors, a working knowledge of ethics, and a commitment to making ethical considerations a core factor in every public policy discussion or decision. Resources from ethical traditions that will be pertinent in selecting leaders and in shaping and justifying policy proposals include the following:

From the Ethics of Character: The Virtues that Undergird Ethical Leadership:

  • Prudence: Good judgment, dialogue with allies and opponents, discernment, seeing things whole, imagining and weighing long-term consequences.
  • Justice: Fairness, equity, building networks of care, inclusiveness, due process.
  • Courage: Resoluteness, resourcefulness, loyalty, determination, guts for moral leadership.
  • Temperance: Self-management, self-discipline, balance and proportion; and in employing violence, using the least force that will really do.
  • Beneficence: The will and the capacity to articulate moral principals and lead in serving the common good.

From the Ethics of Utility: Moral Reasoning for Pursuit of Distributive Justice:

  • A commitment to maximize the greatest good for the greatest number.
  • The will and capacity to lead others in commitment to the common good.
  • Commitment to test the benefits of a proposed or enacted policy for non-injury, equity, fairness, and to question possible future negative consequences.
  • Practical wisdom and leadership capacities to enlist and/or require citizen buy-in.
  • Adherence to the “Difference Principle” – any policy or program selected to increase or benefit the common good should include provisions that insure that it benefits the “worst off” in the society first and most. Restorative and/or remedial justice is ethically vital.

From the Ethics of Principle: Testing the Guidelines and Restraints for Leadership:

  • Honor and respect the mutuality of human rights, making it a central principle in determining policy, law or practices.
  • Test the intent and probable results of a proposed program, policy or innovation from the standpoint of ethics, equity and justice. Is it legal? Is it constitutional? Is it fair? Is it just?
  • Be certain to test whether every one has a fair chance to benefit from a policy or a change in the law. Practice publicity as regards altering policies and stratagems that affect the public good.
  • Play “moral musical chairs”: Imagine and weigh the effects of a considered policy or law from the standpoints of all those whom it will effect, no matter their position or power.
  • Practice “Golden Rule” principles in business, government, and in international law and economics. “Do unto others (races, nations, governments, fellow citizens) as you would have them do unto you.”

Political leaders may underestimate the power and pursuasiveness of an authentic reliance upon, and articulation of, the ethical reasoning that undergirds their policy proposals and the ends they advocate. I find it refreshing to consider the difference in our common life that ethical commitment and competence in national leadership can re-awaken and bring forth in this nation.

[ Posted by James Fowler at January 28, 2004 02:44 PM | More Opinion articles ]

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