Conclusion: Moral Competence in Public Life

Abstract

One distinction that I hope has emerged in these case studies is the difference between expertise and professionalism. Professionals, of course, bring expertise to bear in decision making—whether it is acquired by specialized training or in apprenticeship to established practitioners. But professionalism does not consist simply in the exercise of technical skills, using the right tools or methods, in the right way, to address problems at hand. Beyond such qualities, practitioners have fiduciary obligations to specific individuals—their constituents, their clients, their superiors—and to the public as a whole, to improve the quality of public life. Therefore, they need to know what their fiduciary obligations are and how to develop the competence necessary to meet them.