This book provides a defense of democratic politics in American public service and offers the political ethics of public service as a realistic and optimistic alternative to the cynical American view toward politics and public service. The author's alternative helps career public servants regain public trust by exercising constitutionally centered moral and political leadership that balances the regime values of liberty and equality in governing American society while contributing to the ethical progress of the nation. She identifies three distinct leadership styles of political ethics, enabling career public servants to reconcile their personal loyalties, morality, and consciences with the public and private morality of American society and their constitutional obligations to secure the democratic freedoms of Americans. Recognizing career public servants' moral and institutional struggles, the book proposes a rigorous leadership development program to acclimate individuals to workplace psychological, moral, and political challenges. The view offered here is that career public servants must be a part of, rather than isolated from, American politics to be effective on the job.

Autorentext
Vera Vogelsang-Coombs is Associate Professor and Voinovich Fellow in the Maxine Goodman Levin College of Urban Affairs at Cleveland State University (CSU).  Previously, she was CSU's College of Graduate Studies Dean, the Minnesota State Training Manager, and Hamline University's MAPA Program director.  Her publications focus on city council and mayoral leadership, public service ethics, constitutional governance, and public leadership development.

Inhalt
PART I Introduction.-Case Study of Cuyahoga County, Ohio:  The American Way of Public Service Ethics.-Introduction:The Political Ethics of Public Service: A New American Way of Public Service Ethics.-PART II The Ethical Inquiry of Career Public Servants: Balancing Public and Private Morality in Governing Methods.- 1.What Am I to Be?:  Personal Loyalty, Thick-Thin Morality, and the Crisis of Conscience.- 2.What Am I to Be?:  Personal Loyalty, Thick-Thin Morality, and the Crisis of Conscience.- 3.Will I Do It?: Clarifying the Costs of Ethical Voice.-PART III Great Political Ideas and American Constitutionalism: Balancing Liberty and Equality in Government.- 4.Political Philosophy, the American Constitutional Heritage, and Constitutional Thinking.- 5.Federalism, Constitutional Law, and the Politics of Freedom .- 6. The Political Ethics of Constitutional Change and Constitutional Stewardship .- PART IV Political Institutions and DemocraticPublic Service: Balancing Liberty and Authority in Bureaucratic Governance .- 7. Bureaucratic Governance Perspectives and Democratic Public Service: Institutional Ideals and Threats .- 8. Racial Profiling: Abuses of Bureaucratic Authority that Threaten the Liberty of Citizens .- 9. The Political Ethics of Constitutional Professionalism .- PART V Conclusion .- Conclusion: The New American Way of Ethics:  The Political Ethics of Constitutionally Centered Public Service