The Multidisciplinarity of Ethics and Integrity of Governance

Abstract

To delve into the integrity of governance, this book considers several important questions related to both the bright and the dark side of ethics and integrity. Most especially, it asks which central moral public values are (to be) cherished, what can go wrong and why, and which policies and institutions help to curb corruption and safeguard integrity. To adequately address these questions, however, it must draw on relevant concepts, ideas, and insights from multiple disciplines, not only public administration (my own field), whose study of ethics, integrity, and corruption has offered valuable information and inspiration, but also philosophy, sociology and anthropology, history, criminology and law, psychology, biology and neurosciences, economics, business administration, and political science. Hence, although profiling the current state in all disciplines is a “mission impossible,” I will nevertheless try to give a first impression of the multitude of scientific disciplines and traditions that have contributed to my work and the work of our Integrity of Governance research group. That selection, however, neither strives nor pretends to be complete. What I will do, rather, is to point to a number of building blocks that are useful for understanding the development and content of the approach taken in this book to this important issue.