Revista Tinerilor Economiºti (The Young Economists Journal)

Management – Marketing - Tourism
vision on politics in general” (Baba, Gorun, 2002), represents an „orderly vision on the
institutions”–according to Hague, Harrop, Breslin (Baba, Gorun, 2002).
Public politics are institutionalized activities, which develop in the public space
and which have to aim at a resource allocation (in a material sense or not) to the
members of a community. Public politics aim at the common good of a society or a
community, implying the insurance of the best government.
Hence there is an ethic analytical-comprehensive and structural-functional
dimension of public politics. It is about the ethical codes, moral principles which public
politics have to respect in order to insure the good of the community and implicitly, the
best form of government. We step into the realm of an applied politics related to the
problems of economical and social ethics and in a way, of the politic ethics, because all
these problems have essential tangencies with public and legislative politics of a state.
2. Objectives: FROM ETICS TO PUBLIC POLICY
When we use the term of political ethics we must have in view three conceptual
dimensions: “the ethics of public politics, public function (of the politician’s public
role) and the ethics of international ethics”. All these dimensions are connected
conditioning each other. 41
There is a series of questions with problematized role when it is about the ethics
of public politics. Since in any democratic state, public politics are meant to serve
certain social or collective interests, to ensure the public good, how can we realize this?
Which is the public priority interest? Which is the ideal hierarchy of the interests that
public politics must satisfy? If we establish a hierarchy (if it can be established), how
can we allocate the resources in order to satisfy all needs?
Starting from these questions, ethics becomes a necessary instrument through
which a goal is achieved: good government. “The government ethics offer the premises
of a good politics elaboration in the public sector. In this respect, it is more important
than any other politics, because all politics depend on it” (Kathrn, 1989).
3. Analyses
3.1 Public politics ensure the public good
The dimension of public politics which concerns the insurance of public good
is the result of an ethical-political measure. The placing of politics under the auspice of
ethical theories even since its birth as a discipline can provide a certain type of
explanation.
Aristotle is the one who places politics in the sphere of moral in works as
“Politics” or “Nicomachean Ethics”. Aristotle begins his investigation on what the good
is with an observation related first to a possible hierarchy of the intended goals. In
every field of human activity there is an ultimate goal related to which other goals
which we want to achieve represent means. In the field of medicine, performing a
surgery, prescribing a medication, are means to achieve an ultimate goal which is life
saving. The things are the same with the military strategy which Aristotle gives as
example. The goal is to win battles. In order to achieve this goal we pursue some
intermediary or relative goals. Which would be the ultimate goal in connection to which
41
Adrian Paul-Iliescu, Etica politică, http://www.studiieuropene.ro/id_anul2/anul1/1-2-
2_iliescu_eticapolitica.pdf, accessed at 27.10.2010.
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