Codes of conduct in the realm of public administrations: some experiences

Abstract

This article studies recent experiences in codes of conducts in the context of the Spanish public sector. The first codes of conduct –inter alia, AGE and FEMP– were declarative in nature and without practical consequences. However, since the approval of the Code of Conduct of 2013 by the Basque Country Government, codes related to the institutional integrity framework (OECD) have been being launched. Despite this fact, this is a slow process because some of the practical experiences are conceptually unclear and others do not articulate correctly all the pieces of the model. There are, however, some recent experiences in the right direction. This article finally tackles some recent experiences related to codes of conduct in the local sphere.

Keywords:

integrity, codes of conduct, public ethic, good governance, ethical governance, local governace