THE PUBLIC INTEGRITY PROGRAM
Introduction
Israelis are increasingly troubled by the growing abuse of public office for personal and political gain, and the threat that this abuse poses to Israel’s democratic institutions. This concern is reflected in Israel's continued slide in the annual
Transparency International (TI) Corruption Perceptions Index, which measures national attitudes toward corruption in 163 countries. Though Israel is still rated relatively highly on the index, its ranking has fallen 20 places over the past ten years – from 14th to
34th
its ranking in 2006.
Corruption is abetted by a lack of transparency and clear guidelines in the policy formulation process, and the existence of legislation and public oversight bodies (such as Israel's
State Comptrollers Office)
has so far proven insufficient in monitoring and preventing acts of corruption.
The Hartog School is developing a Public Integrity program, which endeavors to:
- Promote research on ethics, corruption, politics and good governance
- Create courses designed primarily for graduate students,on issues of ethical leadership and good governance
- Raise awareness amongst academics, students, the media, politicians, public sector officials and the wider public ,of issues pertaining to ethics, corruption and governance, through specialized workshops and seminars
The Public Integrity Program is supported by the
Ford Foundation
through its
Israel Peace and Social Justice Fund,
and administered in conjunction with the
New Israel Fund.
Student Research
The Ford Foundation grant supports post-graduate and faculty research on corruption, politics and ethics. For a list of grant recipients to date,
click here.
All research papers in this series are published by the School, and a workshop is convened on the subject of each research paper.
Courses
With Ford Foundation support, the Hartog School sponsors an interfaculty, one-semester course on political corruption, administered by
Dr. Tamar Meisels and
Doron Navot
, both of whom have recently published research on issues pertaining to ethics and leadership. This taught course is offered in cooperation with the
Political Science Department and the
Department of Public Policy.
and comprises lectures, guest speakers, analysis of relevant current Israeli and global issues, and meetings with practitioners.
The first course commenced in late October 2005, attracting 40 students, and has increased in popularity and in the number of students since then.
The School is also supporting a course lead by Prof. Zeev Segal’s entitled “Constitutional Law and Public Ethics”. The course focuses on the ethical and legal aspects of Local Government authority activities and the interaction between the Legislature, the Executive Authority and the Judiciary, with special emphasis on the Supreme Court. This course is taught in the Department of Public Policy and is taken by MA students during the first semester of the 2006/2007 academic year.
In addition to this course, the School supports a weekly course in Applied Ethical Management. The course, lead by Zipi Gushpantz is offered to students in the Department of Public Policy and deals with ethic responsibilities of those in management positions. Students students examine why good managers make bad ethical choices, looking at examples of unethical decisions in the Israeli public policy arena.
The School continues to explore options for new courses.
Measuring Corruption
The School has convened a multi-disciplinary, academic research team to propose a measure for corruption in Israel. The project is led by Prof. Epi Yaar, and includes leading academics: Prof. Giora Rahav, Department of Sociology and Anthropology; Prof. Yossef Katan, School of Social Work; Prof. Dafna Barak-Erez, Law Faculty; and Dr. Amos Zahavi, Department of Political Science.
Diaspora and Good Governance
Research is planned by Dr. Raviv Schwarz, probing key philanthropic actors within the Jewish Diaspora in an attempt to understand their interpretation of issues pertaining to good governance in Israel and their predisposition to it. The research will also examine the attitudes and perceptions of organizations in Israel acting to enhance the quality of governance so as to understand how the role of the Jewish Diaspora is conceived of in their overarching missions.
Comparative international input
The Hartog School has also joined the
Public Integrity Education Network (PIEN), initiated by
TIRI (the Governance Access Learning Network), an NGO with international networks that is devoted to addressing public integrity. This move is directed at enriching the debate and fields of research interest amongst staff and students at the Hartog School.
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