The Political Ethics of Public Service

Vera Vogelsang-Coombs is Associate Professor and Voinovich Fellow in the Maxine Goodman Levin College of Urban Affairs at Cleveland State University (CSU). Previously, she was CSU's College of Graduate Studies Dean, the Minnesota State Training Manager, and Hamline University's MAPA Program director. Her publications focus on city council and mayoral leadership, public service ethics, constitutional governance, and public leadership development.

This book provides a defense of democratic politics in American public service and offers the political ethics of public service as a realistic and optimistic alternative to the cynical American view toward politics and public service. The author's alternative helps career public servants regain public trust by exercising constitutionally centered moral and political leadership that balances the regime values of liberty and equality in governing American society while contributing to the ethical progress of the nation. She identifies three distinct leadership styles of political ethics, enabling career public servants to reconcile their personal loyalties, morality, and consciences with the public and private morality of American society and their constitutional obligations to secure the democratic freedoms of Americans. Recognizing career public servants' moral and institutional struggles, the book proposes a rigorous leadership development program to acclimate individuals to workplace psychological, moral, and political challenges. The view offered here is that career public servants must be a part of, rather than isolated from, American politics to be effective on the job.

Offers a realistic alternative to the cynical American view toward politics and democratic public service

Acknowledgements
PART I IntroductionCase Study: Case Study of Cuyahoga County, Ohio:  The American Way of Public Service EthicsIntroduction: The Political Ethics of Public Service: A New American Way of Public Service EthicsPART IIThe Ethical Inquiry of Career Public Servants: Balancing Public and Private Morality in Governing Methods1. "What Am I to Be?":  Personal Loyalty, Thick-Thin Morality, and the Crisis of Conscience2. "What Will I Do?": Clarifying Self-Interest 3. "Will I Do It?": Clarifying the Costs of Ethical VoicePART III Great Political Ideas and American Constitutionalism: Balancing Liberty and Equality in Government 4. Political Philosophy, the American Constitutional Heritage, and Constitutional Thinking5. Federalism, Constitutional Law, and the Politics of Freedom6. The Political Ethics of Constitutional Change and Constitutional StewardshipPART IVPolitical Institutions and Democratic Public Service: Balancing Liberty and Authority in Bureaucratic Governance7. Bureaucratic Governance Perspectives and Democratic Public Service: Institutional Ideals and Threats8. Racial Profiling: Abuses of Bureaucratic Authority that Threaten the Liberty of Citizens9. The Political Ethics of Constitutional ProfessionalismPART V ConclusionConclusion:The New American Way of Ethics:  The Political Ethics of Constitutionally Centered Public ServiceBibliography