ETICA PRINCIPIU – ABORDAREA DEONTOLOGICĂ ÎN ADMINISTRAŢIA PUBLICĂ
ETHICS AS PRINCIPLE – DEONTHOLOGICAL APPROACH IN PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION
Oana MATEI
Catedra de Ştiinţe Politice şi Administrative, Facultatea de Ştiinţe Umaniste, Politice şi
Administrative, Universitatea de Vest „Vasile Goldiş” din Arad
Tel: 0040-257-282324
E-mail: oanamatei@yahoo.com
ABSTRACT
Kant’s opinion started from the idea that, as long as every person has a rational will, he can have within himself the source of moral legislation (moral actions are a species of rational actions; rational will is good, free, autonomous will; we do not need punishments or rewards to be moral.)
Being moral means, from this perspective, doing the duty dictated by your conscience. “Thou shall not kill”, “Thou shall not steal”, “Thou shall not lie” are moral rules which cannot be broken under any pretext, by any person who claims to be moral, and this because of conscience reasons, not because of external constraint rations or because of the consequences it would create. The origin of the human’s moral laws is not exclusively in the reason of the human being. That which is moral cannot be determined by pleasures, desires which pertain to the lustful side of the human nature, but only by its rational being conscience, related with divinity.
The transposition of this theory in the administrative field assumes the acceptance of the civil servants’ judgments as being absolute, a thing which involves countless risks due to the
relativity to which the personal appreciations are subject to in ethical/unethical terms. Public administrators are not capable of adapting Kant’s absolute imperative to every situation with which they are confronted. The ethic codes would be useful in a time like this, having the role of deontological instruments. Unfortunately, they cannot be substitute for the personal aptitude to make moral decisions in the administrative domain. An important role falls upon the managers, this time as well, who can encourage moral behavior, and wise civil servants will acknowledge the importance of attaching moral obligation not to the personal judgments, but to acts which involve
the present or future welfare (of duties).
Key words: rational will, moral legislation, moral rules, moral obligation, deontology, ethics in public administration, ethic codes, moral decisions.