Public Administration Ethics in the Age of Trump

• In Event: Assessing the Presidency of Donald Trump

Abstract

People serving in the federal government are morally bound to faithfully execute the legal and ethical directives of the president and politically appointed policy makers. This moral imperative flows from the normative implications of the politics-administration dichotomy, embedded in the merit system. But when public servants are confronted with directives that violate their own moral standards, they face acute ethical dilemmas.

Civil servants have faced such quandaries more frequently in the Trump administration than in most previous presidencies. What is particularly unusual in the Trump administration is that in addition to career civil servants, presidential political appointees and even members of the White House staff have faced such dilemmas and have resisted presidential wishes. This paper will examine a range of actions that ethically conflicted government employees might consider when faced with directives about which they have serious legal, ethical, or prudential (i.e. what is good public policy) reservations.

Author

• James P. Pfiffner