« Taiwanese Journal of Political Science No.20Publish: 2004/06

A Performance-Based Theory of the Public Service Ethics and Its Measures

Author: Jay N. Shih

Abstract / Chinese PDF Download

Government  employees  have  to  demonstrate  a  high  standard  of  ethics  andintegrity  in  conducting  public  service.  Ethical  standards  are  one  of  the  keyindicators adopted by many international institutes to evaluate the competitivenessof the public sector. As long as the service or regulatory process of the public sectoris lacking transparency and effective anti-corruption mechanisms, the public, as thecitizen or the customer, will have to pay extra burdens that eventually will cause itsdissatisfaction and loss of trust in the government. Recognizing the importance ofsuch a critical issue, many member countries of the OECD have begun to undertakeefforts to restructure or rebuild ethical infrastructures. The purpose of this paper isfirst to propose a new theoretical framework of public service ethics that is centeredon  performance  accountability.  The  remainder  of  the  paper  will  explain  how  theframework  can  be  implemented  in  practice  by  analyzing  the  experience  of  theOECD nations and the International Transparency.

Keywords:ethical infrastructures、national integrity systems、public service ethics