Moderating ministerial ethics: Putting political ethics in its place

Many contributors to the debate over ethics and politics argue that contemporary politicians pay too little attention to ethics. It is common to argue that democratic governance would be better if only governments took ethics seriously. In this view, politics needs more ethics. I can sympathize but in this chapter I want to disagree. Too much ethics can be as bad as too little ethics. Here my interest is directed to moderating two extreme tendencies in the field of ethics and politics: the first associated with unrealistic reliance on chief ministers to regulate ministerial conduct; and the second associated with idealistic over-reactions against this executive-centred model, and the search for alternative models with the capacity to promote moral virtue among public officials.