For each essay you can choose to answer any of the following twelve questions.
1. Show a theory or theories of ethics can illuminate a particular issue within the field of public sector management.
2. Was Machiavelli right in arguing that the requirements of a moral life and of political life are incompatible?
3. Is there a conflict between the new public management and ethics?
4. To whom should public servants be primarily accountable? (you may use a case study to illustrate your answer)
5. Should we expect politicians to be completely truthful?
6. Evaluate the pros and cons of the different methods of improving ethics in the public sector. Which methods do you think hold the most promise?
7. Is there a conflict between the requirements of organizational life as it is experienced by managers and those of morality, as Robert Jackall maintains?
8. Use Jonathan Haidt's moral foundations theory to analyse an ethical issue within public policy or management.
9. Mary Douglas argues that there are four cultures and four moralities. Examine a controversy in public policy or management and identify how the protagonists who are involved exemplify these different cultures/moralities.
10. Are people in government ever justified in getting their hands dirty?
11. Use Alan Fiske's relational models theory to analyse a policy or management issue.
12. Which theory of ethics should public sector managers subscribe to: deontology, utilitarianism or virtue ethics? Justify your choice.
In your essay you are expected to construct an argument that answers the question. What academic assessors look for in a student's essay is evidence of your understanding of the issues that the question raises. This is gauged by the quality of your argument. A good argument is one that shows evidence of independent thought and of wide reading. It shows that the student has sought to answer the question by thinking about what it means and what it requires of them, reading widely on the topic and constructing an argument rather than simply presenting information piecemeal or undigested. It is also one in which the claims made are supported by evidence. Typically students will cite the various authors whose work they read in their essay. You need to cite the sources of any information that you use in the essay. If you do not do this then you are guilty of plagiarism. This is where someone takes the work of another person and presents it as their own. This happens when you do not acknowledge the source of that material by citing it in your essay. If you commit plagiarism then you are guilty of a breach of academic integrity and you can be punished for this by being failed or awarded a mark of zero for the essay.
2250 words
20 Harvard reference.