ABSTRACT
The implementation of “new public management” as well as of more recent reforms such as those associated with network governance have led to serious concerns, both among academics and practitioners, about their impact on the ethics of public servants. This contribution argues that these discussions can essentially be reduced to a debate between three fundamental positions: new public management, traditional public administration, and new public service. While the three positions clearly diverge in their normative ideas about the desirability of particular types of ethical behavior and the seriousness of types of unethical behavior, their empirical claims are rather complementary. Together, they reflect an important insight in management: each approach, however well intended, carries with it the risk of particular excesses.
