Ethics and Managerial Mindset in Politics

Introduction

To date, politicians are asked above all to be able to make decisions appropriate to the problems to be faced: concluding a trade treaty, making a law to combat corruption, introducing or abolish a tax, dealing with the problem of immigration, changing or not the text of the Constitution, planning an institution or health reform. These all decisions require training in this regard, on both individual problems and identifying the unexpected effects.

The Policy Studies Organization was formed in 1971 in the U.S. and was also open to scholars of other nations. But the public policy as decision analysis already emerged in the 1960s, encompassing political science, sociology, economics, and other disciplines. It emerged out of greater concern for specific policy problems, the causal determinations of particular policies, and the relationship between policies and societal impact.

Historically, decision-making developed starting from some milestones: the “rational decision” theory of M. Weber (1864-1920), the “efficiency choice” theory of V. Pareto (1848-1923), the “problem orientation” theory of H. Lasswell (1902-1978) are some of the main examples.

It is necessary that every single sector policy is framed in a general political line that has characteristics of coherence and unity. That of the politician is a complex activity, which does not allow arbitrary simplifications, and requires knowledge, decision, creative design of solutions and courage.

Typical policy decision-makers are Executives, Politicians, Legislators, Bureaucrats, Policy actors, Interest groups, Research organizations, Mass media.

Following, a list of the major activities in the digital context, as an example (dall'Acqua, 2018):

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  E-Government Activities:

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    To activate innovative projects about dematerialization, interoperability, technology infrastructures)

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    To reorganize (process reengineering) the school function diagram

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    To improve performance and efficiency with attention to quality and usefulness of the results

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    To define and implement the Regional Digital Agenda, contributing to the design and development of a Smart City

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  Open Government Activity, Practicing:

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    Access to open information and data

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    Participation (listening and consultation), collaboration and accountability

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    Using technology as a qualifying factor for citizens’ relationships and effectiveness of internal innovation processes

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  Innovative Design and Solutions:

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    Not limited to digitizing existing document flows and processes, but

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    To take into account the opportunities for innovation that the potentialities of different application solutions can offer for knowledge management and data management (eg big data, open data)

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  Procurement of Innovative Digital Services:

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    To activate projects and initiatives, that enrich the quality of services,

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    To rely on the support of technicians

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    To have critical capacity and interaction to identify the most effective solutions

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  Safeguard of Digital Citizenship:

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    To ensure the respect of the principles of digital citizenship in an inclusive and disseminated way

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    To activate initiatives that make the rights of digital citizenship practicable (digital identity, privacy, and security, access to information)