Book Review: Public Service Ethics in Africa (Vol. 1)

• Author: Willa Bruce
• DOI: 10.1177/0734371X0102100205
• Date: 01 June 2001
• Published date: 01 June 2001
• Subject Matter: Articles

REVIEWOFPUBLICPERSONNELADMINISTRATION / Summer 2001

BOOKREVIEW

United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Division for

Public Economics and Public Administration. (2001). Public service ethics

in Africa (Vol. 1). New York: Author, 127 pp.

This book is a report of a comparative study of ethics at the national level

in 10 African countries conducted by the United Nations in 1999. The

countries are Cameroon, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, Namibia,

Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, and Uganda. The report notes the African

countries studied are prismatic societies. A prismatic society is a society in

transition from simple to complex, from one based in tradition and family

loyalties to one governed by rational rules. In prismatic societies, there is a

precarious balance between tradition and newly imposed expectations

based on the values and norms of highly developed countries such as the

United States. Thus, this book gives the reader a picture of the ethical cli-

mate in cultures much different from that of most of the readers of this

journal.

Criteria for choosing those countries to be studied were a degree of polit-

ical stability,subregional and linguistic diversity, a continuum of ethics and

anticorruption initiatives from very few to full-fledged national campaigns,

a low presence of international organizations, and a successful existing part-

nership in working with the United NationsDepartment of Economic and

Social Affairs Division for Public Economics and Public Administration.

The purpose of the study was to “assist African governments to introduce or

upgrade policies and programmes to improving the management of ethics

and conduct in their public service” (p. 5).

Researchers defined ethics “as a system of shared values and norms that

delineate how public servants—as agents of the state and members of an

established profession (e.g., accounting, law, etc.)—should exercise judg-

ment and discretion in carrying out their official duties” (p. 8). To learn

what these values and norms might be in the 10 countries, they developed a

survey instrument much like a recent ethics survey of nine countries done

by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. The

U.N. survey, which is included in the book, asks for professional judgment

based on data knowledge. Respondents were carefullyselected, paid consul-

159

Review of Public Personnel Administration,Vol. 21, No. 2 Summer 2001 159-162

© 2001 Sage Publications

BOOK REVIEW

at SAGE Publications on December 8, 2012rop.sagepub.comDownloaded from