Governance and Integrity

Abstract

As previously emphasized, morality and ethics refer to what is right or wrong, good or bad, and thus concern values and norms about which people feel strongly because they involve serious community interests. Ethics, in general, concern (reflection on) the moral values and norms that matter, while integrity concerns the ethics of the governance process and refers to the quality of acting in accordance with relevant moral values, norms, and rules. In this chapter, therefore, I build on the previously presented framework and choices made with a concentration on the concept of governance and the state of the art of governance studies. Although governance, as “authoritative policy-making on collective problems and interests and the implementation of the resulting policies,” is a subject of study in many disciplines, including public administration and political science, I will argue that extant governance studies underestimate the empirical importance of ethics and integrity.