廉能政府的理論意涵   全文下載

Theoretical Implications of a Clean Government

Our government faces serious challenges on maintaining integrity and competence. Public officials who have moral competence and professional skill are the cornerstone of a clean goverment. For this reason, the core com-petence of public officials should not confine to professional skill, but ex-tend to moral competence and prudence. According to James S. Bowman et al. viewpoints, the professional edge must contain the skills triangle: techni-cal competencies, leadership competencies, and ethical competencies. Fur-thermore, while J. Patrick Dobel discussing public integrity, triangle of judgment would compass the legal-institutional model, the personal-responsibility model, and the effectiveness or implementation model.
However, in applying moral competence, we encounter the ethical di-lemma. Building public trust in the public service is our direction of gov-ernmental operation. But, when integrity and competence are not compati-ble, which sway first priority in logic of concern is the issue of decision making. Kouzes & Posner’s empirical study, implication of administrative ethical codes in America, and Covey & Merrill’s trust theory imply that the realization of a clean government depends on moral competence at first and then professional skill.