TY - JOUR

T1 - Codes of Good Governance

T2 - National or Global Values?

AU - Beck Jørgensen, Torben

AU - Sørensen, Ditte-Lene

PY - 2013

Y1 - 2013

N2 - Good governance is a broad concept used by many international organizations to spell out how states or countries should be governed. Definitions vary, but there is a clear core of common public values, such as transparency, accountability, effectiveness, and the rule of law. It is quite likely, however, that national views of good governance reflect different political cultures and institutional heritages. Fourteen national codes of conduct are analyzed. The findings suggest that public values converge and that they match model codes from the United Nations and the European Council as well as conceptions of good governance from other international organizations. While values converge, they are balanced and communicated differently, and seem to some extent to be translated into the national cultures. The set of global public values derived from this analysis include public interest, regime dignity, transparency, neutrality, impartiality, effectiveness, accountability, and legality. The normative context of public administration, as expressed in codes, seems to ignore the New Public Management and Reinventing Government reform movements.

AB - Good governance is a broad concept used by many international organizations to spell out how states or countries should be governed. Definitions vary, but there is a clear core of common public values, such as transparency, accountability, effectiveness, and the rule of law. It is quite likely, however, that national views of good governance reflect different political cultures and institutional heritages. Fourteen national codes of conduct are analyzed. The findings suggest that public values converge and that they match model codes from the United Nations and the European Council as well as conceptions of good governance from other international organizations. While values converge, they are balanced and communicated differently, and seem to some extent to be translated into the national cultures. The set of global public values derived from this analysis include public interest, regime dignity, transparency, neutrality, impartiality, effectiveness, accountability, and legality. The normative context of public administration, as expressed in codes, seems to ignore the New Public Management and Reinventing Government reform movements.

U2 - 10.2753/PIN1099-9922150104

DO - 10.2753/PIN1099-9922150104

M3 - Journal article

VL - 15

SP - 71

EP - 96

JO - Public Integrity

JF - Public Integrity

SN - 1099-9922

IS - 1

ER -