ABSTRACT
Medicine, clergy, and law are the classic professions. With knowledge not possessed by an ordinary person, the professional has the ability to inflict harm on others, although that is certainly not the intention. This is where ethics becomes an inseparable part of being a professional. The twentieth century witnessed the phenomenal growth of occupations that laid claim to being professional. Accountants, financial specialists, pharmacists, nurses, engineers, teachers, military officers, planners, architects, pilots, physical therapists, librarians, and social workers have claimed the mantle of professional. Many professional organizations have ethics codes to guide the conduct of their members. Professional public managers, so the conventional wisdom goes, cannot and should not entangle themselves in electioneering or other sundry political and public policy matters that are expected of ordinary citizens. The hallmark of professionalism in government has been and remains to a large extent expertise unfettered by politics. Public administration as a profession has its origins in the separation of politics and administration.
