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Palgrave Macmillan

Ethics in Public Life

Good Practitioners in a Rising Asia

  • Book
  • © 2015

Overview

Authors:
  1. Kenneth Winston
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Part of the book series: Asia Today (ASIAT)

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Table of contents (8 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-x
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  2. Introduction

    • Kenneth Winston
    Pages 1-31

  3. A Gift of Life: Developing a Framework for Ethics

    • Kenneth Winston
    Pages 33-57

  4. The Prison Master’s Dilemma: Ethics in a Non-Ideal World

    • Kenneth Winston
    Pages 59-95

  5. Missionaries in China: The Ethics of Exporting Ethics

    • Kenneth Winston
    Pages 97-132

  6. Exporting the Rule of Law to China

    • Kenneth Winston
    Pages 133-153

  7. The Woman in the Corridor: Caring across Boundaries

    • Kenneth Winston
    Pages 155-182

  8. By the People: Becoming a Practitioner of Democracy

    • Kenneth Winston
    Pages 183-221

  9. Conclusion: Moral Competence in Public Life

    • Kenneth Winston
    Pages 223-249

  10. Back Matter

    Pages 251-261
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Keywords

About this book

The topic of moral competence is generally neglected in the study of public management and policy, yet it is critical to any hope we might have for strengthening the quality of governance and professional practice. What does moral competence consist in? How is it developed and sustained? These questions are addressed in this book through close examination of selected practitioners in Asian countries making life-defining decisions in their work. The protagonists include a doctor in Singapore, a political activist in India, a mid-level bureaucrat in central Asia, a religious missionary in China, and a journalist in Cambodia—each struggling with ethical challenges that shed light on what it takes to act effectively and well in public life. Together they bear witness to the ideal of public service, exercising their personal gifts for the well-being of others and demonstrating that, even in difficult circumstances, the reflective practitioner can be a force for good.     

Reviews

“Here, Winston examines the impact that ‘a rising Asia’ could have on global concepts of public ethics. … For specialists in the political art of practical reasoning, as Winston is, Ethics in Public Life presents a wide variety of fascinating examples of practical reasoning by Asian governance practitioners. … He provides a challenging restatement about global values in public ethics, with more than a hint of criticism of U.S. practices of good governance.” (John Uhr, Political Theory, Vol. 14 (1), March, 2016)

About the author

Kenneth Winston is Lecturer in Ethics at the Harvard Kennedy School, USA, where he teaches practical and professional ethics.

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