Conflict of Interest and Public Life: Cross-National Perspectives

Cover......Page 1
Half-title......Page 3
Title......Page 5
Copyright......Page 6
Contents......Page 7
About the Contributors......Page 9
Acknowledgments......Page 15
Introduction......Page 19
Conflict-of-Interest Scholarship......Page 21
Organization of the Book......Page 29
Part One: Theoretical Frameworks......Page 37
Introduction......Page 39
Conflicts of Interest in the Public Sector......Page 41
How Legal Systems Have Dealt with the Problem of Conflict of Interest......Page 43
Failures of Law......Page 45
Opportunities for the Application of Ethical Standards......Page 48
Conclusion......Page 51
TWO The Watergate Effect: Or, Why Is the Ethics Bar Constantly Rising?......Page 53
Why Is the Ethics Bar Constantly Rising?......Page 55
Scandals and the Politics of Trust......Page 56
Policy Learning and Diffusion......Page 58
Professionalization and Institutionalization......Page 61
The Shared Limits of Existing Interpretations......Page 63
Policy Feedback and Political Change: When Effect Becomes Cause......Page 65
Path Dependence and Self-Reinforcing Processes......Page 69
Conclusion......Page 71
THREE Pluralists and Republicans, Rules and Standards: Conflicts of Interest  and the California Experience......Page 74
Pluralism, Republicanism, and Representation......Page 75
Rules and Standards......Page 77
The California Experience......Page 80
The Limitation of Conflicts Law to Economic Influences on Officials’ Decision Making......Page 82
The Indeterminate Role of Disclosure......Page 83
The Preference for Objective Criteria and Rules Rather Than Standards......Page 84
The Emphasis on an Ex Ante Perspective......Page 86
The Frontloading of Agency Resources......Page 87
Across-the-Board Application of Conflicts Law......Page 89
Conclusion......Page 92
Introduction......Page 94
The Usual Suspects and Beyond......Page 96
Fully Democratizing Political Ethics: Some Initial Features......Page 98
The Challenge of Essentially Contested Democratic Concepts......Page 101
Law as a Source of Democratic Commitments......Page 104
Other Sources of Democratic Commitments......Page 105
ATripartite Analysis of Judgments of Political Ethics......Page 107
Unusual Suspects and Unfamiliar Sins......Page 109
Two Sources of Skepticism......Page 112
A Concluding Note: The Challenge of Compliance......Page 114
Part two: Cross-National Case Studies......Page 117
FIVE Conflict-of-Interest Legislation in the United States: Origins, Evolution, and Inter-Branch Differences......Page 119
Complexity and Scandal: Factors Driving the Evolution of Conflict-of-Interest Regulations in the United States......Page 121
Surveying the Conflict-of-Interest Landscape......Page 124
Acceptance of Gifts......Page 125
Employees’ Financial Interests......Page 126
Receipt of Outside Compensation......Page 127
Post-Employment Activities......Page 129
Legislative and Executive Branch Conflict Rules......Page 134
The Relative Absence of Conflict Rules for the Judiciary......Page 139
Concluding Observations and Directions for Future Research......Page 140
SIX Conflict of Interest in Canada......Page 143
Timeline......Page 144
Institutional Factors I: The Importance of Publicly Sourced Conflicts of Interest......Page 146
Political Factors: The Rise of Privately Sourced Conflicts of Interest......Page 150
Institutional Factors II: Executive versus Legislative Conflict of Interest......Page 151
Self-Dealing......Page 156
Undue Influence......Page 160
Abuse of Office......Page 162
Private Payment for Public Acts......Page 163
Private Gain from Public Office......Page 164
Conclusion......Page 167
SEVEN Conflict of Interest in British Public Life......Page 173
Conflict of Interest as an Issue in the United Kingdom......Page 174
The Changing Constitutional Context......Page 181
Strategies for Regulating Conflict of Interest......Page 183
Legal Regulation......Page 184
Independent Regulation......Page 186
The Motivational Strategy......Page 187
Parliament......Page 188
The Executive......Page 192
The Civil Service......Page 195
Local Government......Page 197
Politics versus Probity: Problems of the New Ethics......Page 200
Conclusions......Page 204
Introduction......Page 206
Why Did Italy Lack a Comprehensive Conflict-of-Interest Regulation?......Page 207
The Media System in Italy: Collusion between Public and Private......Page 211
Why Was There a Problem With Berlusconi?......Page 215
The Parliamentary Debate on Conflict of Interest......Page 220
Conclusion......Page 228
NINE Conclusion: Conflict-of-Interest Regulation in Its Institutional Context......Page 231
Why Is Conflict-of-Interest Regulation So Difficult?......Page 232
Conflict of Interest and Forms of Democratic Government......Page 236
Toward Convergence?......Page 242
Conflict of Interest in Practice: Solutions Appropriate to Specific Roles......Page 243
Partisanship and Conflict of Interest......Page 248
Conflict of Interest and the Quality of Democratic Institutions......Page 250
Bibliography......Page 255
Index......Page 273