INTRODUCTION

We have already discussed codes of conduct and codes of ethics for civil servants. UPSC syllabus also has an entry on the desirable personal qualities which a civil servant should possess. Now, we will discuss this aspect. Ideas on what should be the desirable personal qualities in civil servants changed over time. These changes can be traced partly to changing doctrines in political science and public administration. In a broad manner, changing views on desirable attributes of civil servants can be connected with five theoretical perspectives: revitalization of virtue ethics and its application to public administration; traditional view on bureaucracy associated with Max Weber; ideas of new publicadministration;publicchoicetheory; and communitarianism.Whilethefiveperspectiveswill help us in understanding why different writers emphasize different civil service ethics, there is no one-to-one correspondence between the two. We must note an important point while considering the matter. When people speak of public servants, they may refer to permanent civil service officials as in UK and India or to political appointees as in USA. Thus, relevance of civil service qualities which some writers highlight may apply either to former or to latter.

Some ideas discussed earlier on codes of conduct and codes of ethics partly overlap (though we minimized repetition) with ideas in this chapter.