Public Value Dynamics

Abstract

Administrative and political behavior that is considered good or appropriate in one context can easily be considered bad or inappropriate in another. Take, for instance, the sale of public office. While largely accepted in much of early modern Europe, this is mostly outlawed today. Another example is the practice of gift giving to public officials. It depends very much on context whether this is an acceptable form of payment, a gesture of trust, an obligatory ritual, or an act of bribery. In short, moral judgment (what is right or wrong behavior) largely depends on context of time and place. This in turn raises the important question when and why moral judgment – and with it public morality as such – actually changes. When and why, for example, did a public office cease to be considered personal property one can buy and sell for personal gain? What actually makes a gift an act of bribery rather than a gesture of trust? Answers to such questions can partly be found through the study of public value dynamics, defined here as the change and stability in the occurrence of and meaning attributed to public values over time. In a nutshell, since public values make up public morality, understanding when and why public values change helps in understanding the changing public morality and conceptions of “good governance” as a whole. Various scholars – in particular from the disciplines of political science, public administration, and public policy – continuously stress the importance of a well-functioning public sector; both in a managerial and a normative sense. As such they often assess the specific ethical challenges and changes in public morality that stem from changes in political-administrative decision-making, public policy, and public management. Research has, for example, focused on challenges and changes such as New Public Management, multilevel governance, or increased globalization and their impact on administrative ethics, public values, and integrity (cf. Lawton et al. 2016). Are public values compromised by New Public