Conflict of Interest in American Public Life

by Andrew Stark

Overview

Ranging over a wide array of cases, Andrew Stark draws on legal, moral, and political thought—as well as the rhetoric of officeholders and the commentary of journalists—to analyze several decades of debate over conflict of interest in American public life. He offers new ways of interpreting the controversies about conflict of interest, explains their prominence in American political combat, and suggests how we might make them less venomous and intractable.

Stark shows that over the past forty years public opinion has shifted steadily toward an objective conception of conflict: instead of considering case-by-case motivations, we have adopted broadly prophylactic rules barring a variety of circumstances with no regard for whether individuals facing those circumstances would be moved in culpable ways. At the same time, we have shifted toward a subjective conception of interest: where we once focused narrowly on money, we now inquire into various commitments individuals might pursue in ways that could impair their judgment.

In exploring the consequences of these twin migrations—the passage of "conflict" from a subjective to an objective understanding; the transformation of "interest" from an objective to a subjective conception—the author aims to make our debates over public ethics less vexatious for officials, and more lucid for citizens.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780674012134
Publisher:	Harvard University Press
Publication date:	09/15/2003
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	352
Product dimensions:	5.69(w) x 8.88(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Andrew Stark is Professor of Strategic Management and Political Science, University of Toronto.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

I Conflict

1. The Perils of Prophylactic Law

2. The Topography of Conflict

3. Self-Dealing

4. Undue Influence

5. Abuse of Office

6. Private Payment for Public Acts

7. Private Gain from Public Office

8. The Revolving Door: I

9. The Revolving Door: II

Summary

II Interest

10. Interest, Bias, and Ideology

11. Limousine Liberals, Country-Club Conservatives

12. On Character in American Politics

13. Self-Generated versus Other-Imposed Encumbrances on Judgment

14. Quid Pro Quo and Campaign Finance

15. Spousal Interests

16. Combination of Roles and Ex Parte Contacts

17. Hold the Interest, Vary the Role

18. De Minimis

Summary

III Appearances

19. The Meaning of "The Appearance of Official Impropriety"

20. The Legalistic Attack on the Appearance Standard

21. The Political Justification for the Appearance Standard

IV Remedies

22. Recusal, Divestiture, Balance, and Disclosure

23. What Is a Balanced Committee?

24. Disclosure and Its Discontents

Conclusion

Notes

Index

What People are Saying About This

Government officials are rightly held to high ethical standards because of their visibility, and hence their potential for teaching good or bad lessons about morality. Andrew Stark's book makes an important contribution to our thinking through the ethical issues at stake in crafting judgments and policies in this area.

Steven Kelman

Government officials are rightly held to high ethical standards because of their visibility, and hence their potential for teaching good or bad lessons about morality. Andrew Stark's book makes an important contribution to our thinking through the ethical issues at stake in crafting judgments and policies in this area.
— Steven Kelman, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University

Don Herzog

An arrestingly original interpretation of conflict of interest. Stark earns his theory the hard way, the right way: he immerses himself in legal decisions, political conflicts, bureaucratic policy memos, you name it. Working from the ground up, he offers an elegant structure full of novel and mischievous insights. The book belongs on the shelves of lawyers, politicians, and journalists--it represents a powerful new way of working on ethics and policy.
— Don Herzog, University of Michigan Law School

Editorial Reviews

[Stark] argues that conflicts of interest, real or imagined, are rife these days because of a combination of 'legal liberalism' and 'political liberalism'...[He] probes such matters with great care and thoughtfulness. His prose is superbly readable, his analysis relentless...Among other things, he offers the reader the wry pleasure of watching all the tools of Oxford philosophy deployed to decipher a legal regime designed to prevent abuses by Chicago ward heelers and Washington lobbyists.

Wall Street Journal - John O. McGinnis

Government officials are rightly held to high ethical standards because of their visibility, and hence their potential for teaching good or bad lessons about morality. Andrew Stark's book makes an important contribution to our thinking through the ethical issues at stake in crafting judgments and policies in this area.

Steven Kelman

An arrestingly original interpretation of conflict of interest. Stark earns his theory the hard way, the right way: he immerses himself in legal decisions, political conflicts, bureaucratic policy memos, you name it. Working from the ground up, he offers an elegant structure full of novel and mischievous insights. The book belongs on the shelves of lawyers, politicians, and journalists—it represents a powerful new way of working on ethics and policy.

Don Herzog

Stark brings back to our attention a host of Presidential advisers, Cabinet officers and lawmakers who have been accused of, or forced to resign over, conflict of interest...Stark does not sit in judgment on particular individuals; instead, he exposes the laws and particular cases to remorseless and clever reformulation and reinterpretation. In so doing, he highlights the contradictions and inconsistencies of prosecutors and defendants, and those of critics and champions of regulation. The result is provocative and always stimulating.

Times Literary Supplement - Tony Badger

[This book is] perfectly poised to benefit from the country's cresting wave of conflict-of-interest outrage...The scandal of 'conflict of interest' as a moral notion, Stark recognizes, is that it's poorly named. All of us have interests that conflict. It's not logical or psychological conflict among them that we seek to eliminate in public officials and umpires. It's decision-making according to inappropriate criteria.

Chronicle of Higher Education - Carlin Romano

[Stark] argues that conflicts of interest, real or imagined, are rife these days because of a combination of 'legal liberalism' and 'political liberalism'...[He] probes such matters with great care and thoughtfulness. His prose is superbly readable, his analysis relentless...Among other things, he offers the reader the wry pleasure of watching all the tools of Oxford philosophy deployed to decipher a legal regime designed to prevent abuses by Chicago ward heelers and Washington lobbyists.
— John O. McGinnis

Wall Street Journal

[This book is] perfectly poised to benefit from the country's cresting wave of conflict-of-interest outrage...The scandal of 'conflict of interest' as a moral notion, Stark recognizes, is that it's poorly named. All of us have interests that conflict. It's not logical or psychological conflict among them that we seek to eliminate in public officials and umpires. It's decision-making according to inappropriate criteria.
— Carlin Romano

Chronicle of Higher Education

Stark brings back to our attention a host of Presidential advisers, Cabinet officers and lawmakers who have been accused of, or forced to resign over, conflict of interest...Stark does not sit in judgment on particular individuals; instead, he exposes the laws and particular cases to remorseless and clever reformulation and reinterpretation. In so doing, he highlights the contradictions and inconsistencies of prosecutors and defendants, and those of critics and champions of regulation. The result is provocative and always stimulating.
— Tony Badger

Times Literary Supplement