Project Group IV: Virtue and Values in Public Administration 

The Project group has terminated its work and its publication entitled “Value and Virtue in Public Administration. A Comparative Perspective”, edited by Michiel S. De Vries and Pan Suk Kim was published in October 2011 in the Governance and Public Management Series of Palgrave Macmillan. For a description of the book, please visit click here!  

This group will focus on the role of ethics and in particular the dialectic between western and eastern perceptions of “virtue” in governance. What is a good public servant? They met first in Brussels on 23 March 2006. The Secretary is Johannes Irschik. 

Successful public administration should be based on the virtues and values of the societies they serve, although these virtues and values may vary. However, the real problem is the fact that it is very difficult to define a set of universal virtues and values. How do the public institutions define the virtues and values that govern them? To what extent do the virtues and values have any force of administrative rule? How are the virtues and values communicated and put into operation? This panel plans to deal with the broad context of virtues and values: philosophical approaches, operational perspectives, and country studies, and case studies.

The working group will continuously explore further dialogues on virtues and values by 2008 and the final outcome of the work will be published as an edited volume of the book by IOS Press or Sage Publications.

The group met for the first time in Brussels on March 23 2006. The members gathered again in New York City at the United Nations during the spring of 2007. The participants officially agreed on future steps to be taken:  among these, the setting up of a panel on virtues and values during the IIAS Congress in Abu Dhabi. This panel convened on July 13th 2007.