ABSTRACT
The ethics debate in American public administration has centered in recent months on a proposed code of ethics for the American Society for Public Administration (ASPA). The National Council of ASPA has said no and adopted a statement of principles in lieu of a code of ethics in late 1981, doing so on recommendation of its Professional Standards and Ethics Committee. Since an ethics code is largely unenforceable anyway, we should not have one. Still others resist what they call the overly moralistic and preachy language of ethics codes in general, which raises for these critics the specter of the profession caving in to the moral majority. In a code of ethics it typically is reflected in such phrases as "public morality," "the sovereignty of the people," and in references to the law. Objectivists maintain that ontological ethics invite the administrator to be ethical, because they encourage him or her to make choices and judgments and to pursue actions.
