Ethics in the British Civil Service
| Published date | 01 July 1988 |
| Date | 01 July 1988 |
| DOI | 10.1177/095207678800300310 |
| Author | George Moseley |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Review:
Sir
George
Moseley
Ethics
in
the
British
Civil
Service
Routledge,
1988,
Price
£30
Richard
A.
Chapman
When
my
son-in-law
espied
me
with
this
book
and
noted
the
title
he
commented,
with
all
the
cynicism
of
the
rising
young
commercial
tycoon
'I
wouldn't
have
expected
it
to
be
as
thick
as
that!'
And,
to
be
honest,
neither
would
I.
At
first,
and
even
second
blush,
a
book
of
over
300
pages
on
the
subject
of
civil
service
ethics
has
all
the
appearance
of
overkill!
In
fact,
the
structure
of
the
book
is
more
complex
than
that,
and
merits
the
explanation
the
author
provides
in
his
Introduction.
It
is
a
sequel
to
the
author's
'Leadership
in
the
British
Civil
Service:
A
study
of
Sir
Percival
Waterfield
and
the
Creation
of
the
Civil
Service
Selection
Board'
and
was
planned
as
the
second
part
of
Professor
Chapman's
study
of
three
eminent
civil
servants
-
Warren
Fisher,
Edward
Bridges
and
Percival
Waterfield.
In
the
event,
the
material
on
Bridges,
culled
from
over
2000
files
and
a
wide
variety
of
sources,
led
the
author
to
his
choice
of
the
title.
'Bridges
clearly
had
unambiguous
standards
for
himself
and
he
expected
(or
assumes)
them
to
exist
in
others.
It
therefore
seems
not
unreasonable
to
use
the
word
'ethics'
in
the
title
for
this
book
although
the
book
is
neither
a
philosphical
treatise
nor
a
handbook
to
guide
civil
servants
into
how
they
should
behave.'
The
result,
as
the
author
describes
it,
is
'a
double
contribution
to
the
[public
aministration
academic]
literature.'
First
then,
we
are
presented
with
a
biographical
study
of
the
career
of
Sir
Edward
(later
Lord)
Bridges
as
Head
of
the
Civil
Service
in
the
immediate
post-
war
period;
and
secondly,
with
an
account
of
'the
methods
of
work
and
standards
expected
of
civil
servants
that
are
of
major
importance
at
the
present
time'.
It
is
an
interesting
idea,
but
I
am
not
sure
that
it
entirely
comes
off
at
least
so
far
as
one
reader
is
concerned.
Public
Policy
and
Administration
Volume
3
No. 3
Winter
1988
47
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