Professional Documents
Culture Documents
The breadth and depth of the ethics deficit in national politics contributes
directly to the "democracy deficit" -- declining public confidence in political
leaders, parties, candidates, elections and elected bodies such as Parliament.
It also makes it increasingly difficult to recruit men and women of integrity
and ability to run for public office. So what might be done to fix it?
For example, two programs being developed by the Manning Centre for
Building Democracy - a school of practical politics and an advanced level
program in political management - seek to provide this service. Ten years
ago, ethics would not have been an explicit part of the curriculum. Today -
post-Enron, post-sponsorship - it is a must.
One premier, with whom I'm familiar, would periodically assemble his caucus
and senior civil servants and lay down the rule: "Those who make the laws
and those who administer the laws must keep the laws, for when we fail to do
so we lose the moral authority to govern." To give weight to this imperative,
he let it be known that he had charged the deputy attorney-general and
several key members of his staff to randomly, but systematically, scrutinize
all government contracts and transactions, and to report any appearance of
conflict of interest or ethical misconduct to the attorney-general and himself.