One-Day Workshop
‘Anti-corruption, good governance and a public service ethos: improving standards of administrative conduct since the 19th century’
University of Leiden
Theme
Questions of ethical administrative conduct and anti-corruption are paramount in current academia and practice. Supra-national and national attempts to eliminate corruption in public administration have, however, largely failed, despite the investment of significant sums of capital. Where top-down regulations and frameworks have proven largely ineffective to achieve durable change, a more promising approach seems to be a ‘bottom-up’ strengthening of integrity and a public service ethos as well as paying close attention to training and education in order to improve standards of good governance. In this workshop we aim to bring together scholars from various disciplines (e.g. history, law, public administration/public management, political science) to offer comparative historical approaches surrounding the central question how, when and why a public service ethos (or standards of good administrative conduct to combat corruption and lacking integrity) developed in various European countries over the modern period since roughly the 19th century?
Central point of departure is the emergence of strong European welfare states in this period, which in many places led to the construction of centralized professional bureaucracies in charge of delivering new and varied public services. It was a development that went hand in hand with discussions on civil service reform, improving public service ‘quality’ and good governance. In a move away from 18th-century ‘old corruption’, new standards for proper administrative conduct were set and attempts were made to understand, reassess and/or improve public service professionalism as well as overall bureaucratic legitimacy, representativeness and accountability. Crucial in this was (and still is) the importance of training and education for public service. The workshop will therefore also specifically deal with the question concerning the role of systems and practices of training, education (also linked to recruitment) of public servants in the construction of a ‘modern’ public service ethos and will present a recently published book on this topic. The workshop offers historical insights that also speak to practical concerns in the present, surrounding anti-corruption, public integrity, good governance and a public service ethos. For this reason, practitioners are invited to join the discussion.
Program
This workshop is co-financed by Leiden University Fund.
09.30 – 10.00: Opening, welcome and a round of introductions
PART I: The historical efficacy of anti-corruption efforts
10.00 – 10.45: Mircea Popa, Endogenous reform in improving standards of professional
conduct in the 19th century.
10.45 – 11.30: Ronald Kroeze and Jens Ivo Engels, European comparative perspectives on
(anti) corruption in modernity.
11.30 – 12.15: Gemma Rubi & Joan Torrents, Administrative Immorality and Anti-Corruption
efforts in Late Modern Spain (XIXth-XXth centuries).
12.15 – 13.30 Lunch
PART II: A Public Service Ethos through training and education since the 19th century
13.30 – 14.15: Ian Cawood: Trans-national influences on the development of the public service
ethos in British administration, 1800-1914.
14.15 – 15.00: Peter Becker, The integration of grace by the emperor in the public service
system of the Habsburg monarchy. And its links to a public service ethos
15.00 – 15.45: Toon Kerkhoff & Denis Moschopoulos, The Education and Training of Public
Servants. Histories of Systems and Practices from the Nineteenth Century to the Present
15.45 – 16.00 Coffee / Tea Break
16.15 – 17.00: Plenary discussion and reflection with online and offline participants.
We will discuss how historical insightsinto (anti-) corruption and systems and practices of training and education inform practical and current perspectives on public servant professionalism and craftmanship and the consolidation and/or strengthening of a public service ethos.
17.00: Close
Attend via MS Teams:
Meeting ID: 383 673 487 818
Passcode: 2USS9W