by Maureen Mancuso (1995)
The ethical standards of the British House of Commons depend almost entirely upon the personal ethics of its individual members. Parliament expects that its members, as holders of a public trust, will be "honourable members" in both name and deed. Maureen Mancuso examines the current state of British legislative ethics and raises important theoretical questions about whether the ethical standards of an institution should be left in the hands of individual members. Based on extensive personal interviews with more than one hundred MPs, Mancuso's is the first systematic investigation of British legislative ethics. Identifying significant divergence in ethical attitudes, she divides MPs into four types: the Puritans, who stake out the moral high ground; the Servants, who conform to the traditional ideal of the MP as public-spirited constituency advocate; the Muddlers, who are not bothered by personal conflicts of interest; and the Entrepreneurs, who use their position to achieve any end not explicitly prohibited. The implications of this unexpectedly diverse ethical ecosystem are explored, as well as various possibilities for reform.
Maurizio Viroli
Italy is a country of free political institutions, yet it has become a nation of servile courtesans, with Silvio Berlusconi as their prince. Drawing upon the republican conception of liberty, this title shows that a people can be unfree even though they are not oppressed.
André J. Bélanger
"Using France as the most representative case of a Catholic context, Andre J. Belanger argues that as French society became more secularized intellectuals replaced the clergy as arbitrators of justice and enlightenment. Catholic morality was consolidated by the scholastic tradition and confirmed by the Counter-Reformation, providing the foundation that allowed the establishment of a lay elite. Belanger describes the progressive takeover of positions of influence by the new elite in Catholic society and examines arguments used by thinkers from the seventeenth to the twentieth century to legitimize their positions. In contrast, the Anglo-Saxon Protestant tradition, due to its emphasis on the priesthood of all believers, led to recognition of the individual's conscience as the sole judge of her or his deeds and failed to provide intellectuals with the basis for any claim to serve as moral leaders in political affairs."--BOOK JACKET. "Encompassing a variety of disciplines, this study will be of interest to students of political science, sociology, philosophy, and history."--BOOK JACKET.
Jenny Davidson
"In Hypocrisy and the Politics of Politeness, Jenny Davidson considers the arguments that define hypocrisy as a moral and political virtue in its own right. She shows that these were arguments that thrived in the medium of eighteenth-century Britain's culture of politeness. In the debate about the balance between truthfulness and politeness, Davidson argues that eighteenth-century writers from Locke to Austen come down firmly on the side of politeness. This is the case even when it is associated with dissimulation or hypocrisy. These writers argue that the open profession of vice is far more dangerous for society than even the most glaring discrepancies between what people say in public and what they do in private. This book explores what happens when controversial arguments in favor of hypocrisy enter the mainstream, making it increasingly hard to tell the difference between hypocrisy and more obviously attractive qualities like modesty, self-control and tact."--Jacket.
Robert G. Kaiser
The startling story of the monumental growth of lobbying in Washington, D.C., and how it undermines effective government and pollutes our politics.A true insider, Robert G. Kaiser has monitored American politics for The Washington Post for nearly half a century. In this sometimes shocking and always riveting book, he explains how and why, over the last four decades, Washington became a dysfunctional capital. At the heart of his story is money--money made by special interests using campaign contributions and lobbyists to influence government decisions, and money demanded by congressional candidates to pay for their increasingly expensive campaigns, which can cost a staggering sum. In 1974, the average winning campaign for the Senate cost $437,000; by 2006, that number had grown to $7.92 million. The cost of winning House campaigns grew comparably: $56,500 in 1974, $1.3 million in 2006.Politicians' need for money and the willingness, even eagerness, of special interests and lobbyists to provide it explain much of what has gone wrong in Washington. They have created a mutually beneficial, mutually reinforcing relationship between special interests and elected representatives, and they have created a new class in Washington, wealthy lobbyists whose careers often begin in public service. Kaiser shows us how behavior by public officials that was once considered corrupt or improper became commonplace, how special interests became the principal funders of elections, and how our biggest national problems--health care, global warming, and the looming crises of Medicare and Social Security, among others--have been ignored as a result.Kaiser illuminates this progression through the saga of Gerald S. J. Cassidy, a Jay Gatsby for modern Washington. Cassidy came to Washington in 1969 as an idealistic young lawyer determined to help feed the hungry. Over the course of thirty years, he built one of the city's largest and most profitable lobbying firms and accumulated a personal fortune of more than $100 million. Cassidy's story provides an unprecedented view of lobbying from within the belly of the beast.A timely and tremendously important book that finally explains how Washington really works today, and why it works so badly.From the Hardcover edition.