Chapter 13 Comparative Government Ethics

The US system of government ethics is the most complicated in the world. Other systems have been adopted in other jurisdictions, in some cases with more efficient outcomes. However, no system has achieved universally accepted solutions to the problems associated with corruption, self-dealing and other challenges to effective government, whether in liberal democracies or elsewhere. These problems across systems and cultures suggests that, while comparisons are useful, each jurisdiction must experiment with its own proposed remedies and enforcement challenges.

While this casebook focuses on government ethics in the Executive Branch, parallel ethics regimes apply in the Judicial Branch and the Legislative Branch. Comparisons with these regimes is also useful.