GTSU 2036

Ethics, Governance
and Public Policy
Introduction
D. Stivas
 Course: What is it
Course Instructor
About?

Course: Teaching Course: Methods of

Contents Methods Assessment

Doing the Right Case Studies:

Thing. Moral • UNDP, The Sustainable
Reasoning. Moral Development Agenda
Considerations
 Dr Dionysios Stivas

• [email protected]
• AAB1101
Course
Instructor Background

Areas of Expertise
 STUDIES?

WHERE FROM?
GTSU 2036:
THE
WHY ARE YOU INTERESTED IN
STUDENTS GTSU 2036?

EXPECTATIONS?
 Course: What is it about?

 How public policies intersect with larger  Major Ethical Theories

questions of moral and political philosophy  Consequentialism
 Examples and arguments about political  Deontology
philosophy and moral considerations  Virtue Ethics
informing public policy  Values and Community
 Explore the moral and political values  The Ethical Limits of markets and Functions
implicit in a range of policy decisions, such of the State
as environment, sustainable development,
education, social inequality, welfare and
 Social Justice
taxation  Individual Rights and Liberties
 Describe and Describe and Explain the Key Concepts and Theories in Moral Philosophy
Explain

Identify and Identify and Evaluate the Moral and Political Values Underpinning Policy
Evaluate Decisions

Course:
Intended Apply
Apply Concepts and Theories in Moral and Political Philosophy to Policy-
related Issues

Learning
Outcomes Analyze
Analyze the Impact of Political, Economic, and Moral Considerations on Public
Policy and Vice Versa

Make Policy Recommendations for the Goal of Sustainable Development of the

Make Community
 Course: Teaching Methods

 Lectures
 Class Discussions
 Film and Documentaries watching
 Role-play
 Negotiations of policy advisors and other stakeholders with senior government officials (or
politicians), making policy recommendations
 30%  Final Exam (electronic quiz)

40%  Term Paper (individual-2,000 words)

Course:
Assessment 20%  Policy Memo (individual-1,5 pages)
Methods
10%  (Class) Participation
 The Nature and
Theories of Normative
Introduction Ethics (p2)

Today 21 Sep.

Course
Content 14 Sep. 28 Sep.

The Nature and The Moral Limits of

Theories of Normative Markets
Ethics (p1)
 Environmental Policies and
Sustainable Development
Education and Social Mobility • Documentary watching: Years of
• Case Study: Hong Kong Living Dangerously

12 Oct.
Course Content 5 Oct.. 19 Oct.

Public Health and Social

Inequality
• Case Study: China
 Course Content

The Welfare State and Redistributive Taxation (p1)

• Documentary: Minding the Gap
Individual Liberties (p1) & EAC Seminar

26 Oct. 9 Nov.

2 Nov.

The Welfare State and Redistributive Taxation (p2)

• Documentary: Hong Kong Connection: Housing for the Grassroots
 Development
Individual Liberties (p2) • Hong Kong Connection: Low End
• Ted Talk: The Paradox of Choice Population

16 Nov. 30 Nov.

Course
Content 23 Nov.

Human Rights
Questions?
 Public policy is what public officials within
governments, and by extension the citizens
they represent, choose to do or not to do
about public problems.
What is Public
Policy About?
WHAT ISSUES DO, IN YOUR OPINION,
QUALIFY AS PUBLIC PROBLEMS?
 A simpler definition of public policy:
o “a course of government action or inaction in
What is Public response to public problems. It is associated with
formally approved policy goals and means as well as
Policy About? the regulations and practices of agencies that
implement programs.”
 What is Public Policy About?

The term policy refers in

general to a purposive
course of action that an
WHAT IS POLICY?
individual or group
consistently follows in
dealing with the problem.
 What is Public Policy About?

Whether in public or in private sector the policies can be thought of as the instruments through
which societies regulate themselves and attempt to channel human behavior in acceptable
directions.
IS IT DANGEROUS TO TRY TO CHANNEL THE PEOPLES’ BEHAVIOR?

CAN THEY BE USED FOR MALICIOUS PURPOSES BY GOVERNMENTS?

 What is Public Policy About?

In most of the cases the policies represent which of many different values receive the
highest priority in any given decision.
The actions of policymakers can determine definitively and with the force of law which of
society’s differing and sometimes conflicting values will prevail.
 The Government

It refers to the institutions and political processes

Basic Concepts through which public policy choices are made. These
of Public Policy institutions and processes represent the legal authority
to govern or rule a group of people.

What does the “government” look like in the US?

 WHO CONSTITUTES THE
GOVERNMENT IN MAINLAND CHINA?

Basic
Concepts of
Public WHERE CAN YOU FIND THE
PROVISIONS ABOUT THE
Policy INSTITUTIONS AND THEIR
RESPECTIVE POWERS?
 The Politics
Basic Concepts
of Public Policy WHAT DOES THE WORD
POLITICS MEAN TO
YOU?
 The Politics of POLICYMAKING

WHO USUALLY PARTICIPATES IN THE POLITICS OF

POLICYMAKING?

Basic Concepts The Politics of ISSUE POSITIONS OF DIFFERENT GROUPS

of Public Policy
The Politics of POWER

The Politics of ELECTIONS

 The Politics

 Politics exerts strong influence on policy making,

in part because elected officials necessarily must
Basic Concepts try to anticipate how their policy statements and
of Public Policy actions might affect their chances for reelection
 Policymakers are therefore sensitive to the views
of the groups and individuals who helped them
win office in the first place and whose support may
be essential to keeping them in office
 The Policy Analysis

Basic Concepts Analysis means deconstructing an object of

study—breaking it down into its basic
of Public Policy elements to understand it better.

HOW WOULD YOU DECONSTRUCT

POLICY MAKING?
 The Policy Analysis

The study of the causes and consequences of

Basic policy decisions
Concepts of
Public The use of reason and evidence to choose the
best policy among alternatives
Policy
The deliberate critical thinking about the
causes of public problems
The Policy
Process Model
 Instruments of Public Policy

Education,
Government
Regulation Information, and
Management
Persuasion

Taxing and
Market Mechanisms
Spending
Hurricane
Charley
 What is the Right Thing to do?
 Medieval Societies
 22 people died  “just price”
 $11 billion damages  Market Societies
 Price Gouging  Supply and Demand
 Bag of Ice  $10 (2)
 Clearing fallen trees  $23,000
 Small household generators  $2,000 (250)
 Motel Room per night  $160 (40)
 Florida anti-price gouging legislation
 What is the Right Thing to do?

Anti-Price Gouging HK and N95 face Questions of

Price Gouging
Legislation masks Morality and Law

• Does Price • Emergency • What should the

Gouging Help • Buyers under state do?
Floridians? How? Duress • What the law
• Contract Law should be like?
• How society should
be organized?
 Welfare, Freedom and Virtue
Welfare
Ideas of Justice Maximization Respect of Freedom
o Maximize Welfare o Welfare as Prosperity o Let people choose for
o Providing incentives for themselves what value to
o Respect Freedom
people to work hard place on the things to
o Promote Virtue supplying goods wanted exchange but…
by other people, but… o Do buyers really have a
o What about those who choice when they are under
cannot afford the duress?
increased prices?
 Welfare, Freedom and Virtue

Ideas of Justice Promote Virtue

o Maximize Welfare  Personal greed vs Civic virtue
o Respect Freedom  What is a Good Society?
o Promote Virtue  “By punishing greedy behavior rather than rewarding it, society
affirms the civic virtue of shared sacrifice for the common
good”
 But… who is to judge what is virtue and what is vice?
 Should a just society seek to promote the virtue of its citizens?
 Ancient vs Modern theories of justice
The Purple
Heart Award
 The Purple Heart Award
 What virtues are worthy of honor and  The PHA honors sacrifice
reward?
 The PHA requires no heroic act, only an
 Should it be awarded to those diagnosed injury inflicted by the enemy
with post-traumatic stress disorder?
 PTSD viewed as a kind of weakness
 Pentagon 2009: “The award should be
reserved for soldiers with physical injuries”  Devaluating the honor
 PTSD is not intentionally caused by enemy
action
 PTSD is difficult to be diagnosed objectively
The Bailout
Outrage
  $700 billion bailout
 Collapse of the banks and financial firms 
Collapse of the entire financial system

The Bailout  The ”bonuses”

AIG: $173 billion bailout but paid $165 million in
Outrage

bonuses to executives
 Talents’ attraction argument
 House of Representatives: introduced a bill imposing
90% tax on bonuses
 Injustice?

Reward of Greed?

• Why no one reacted when larger bonuses were

The Bailout offered to the same persons before crisis?
• This time the bonuses were paid by the tax
Outrage payers

Reward of Failure?

• “Americans are harder on failure than on greed”

  Welfare Maximization   Prosperity  
Utilitarianism

 Freedom and Justice  justice means respecting

The Three freedom and individual rights

Approaches to  Libertarianism and laissez-faire

 Egalitarianism and remedying policies
Justice
 Virtue and Good Life Legislating Morality
The Runway Trolley Dilemma
The Runway
Trolley
Dilema
 Moral Reasoning: The Runway Trolley

Moral Reasoning as
Deliberate vs Conflict of personal
a way of persuading
Collateral Damage moral principles
other people
The Lone
Survivor
 Moral Reasoning: The Afghan Goatherds
 Marcus Luttrell  MORAL REFLECTION
 3+16 Americans died 1. Conviction/Opinion about the right thing
to do
2. Reflect on the reason for our conviction
3. Seek out the principle on which our
conviction is based
4. Confusion
5. Revision of judgement
6. Dialectic between our judgements and
principles
 Case Studies

1. UNDP Sustainable Development Agenda

I. What is the meaning of sustainable development?
II. How could public policies promote a sustainable community?
Questions?