Talk:Neutrality/Notes

This page holds references that I will use to develop this article(See: Neutrality):

Summarizations

From 1, 2, and 3, in the role of government/public/civil service, neutrality is an automatic job requirement in order to perform functions of the government.

From 4,

"At the end of the day, then, Woods has a perfectly reasonable financial justification for zipping his lips and changing the subject, and frequently. However, the Homeric hero--which we take him to be--is not merely a man of great material worth, but also a paragon of virtue. We should not put Woods on the pedestal on which we've already placed him unless we are convinced that his financial justification for political reticence and a lack of political action constitutes an appropriate moral justification."

Speaking of moral justifications, 5 discusses the difference between impartiality and morality; as they are two seperate categories often lumped incorrectly together (as a positive trait). Additionally, impartiality can be applied when deciding amongst say, job candidates whose qualifications are based on merit, and a group of people who you need to ensure to have equal protections and care(not merit). To quote from the same page:

"Many attempts to characterize impartiality fail to respect the distinction between the broadest, most formalistic sense of the notion, and a more specifically moral impartiality. To say, for instance, that an impartial choice is one that is free of bias or prejudice is to presuppose that we are dealing with a certain sort of impartiality, that which is required or recommended by morality, or at least worthy of moral approbation. ‘Bias’ and ‘prejudice’ are loaded terms, suggesting not only that some consideration is being excluded, but also that the exclusion is appropriate and warranted. Similarly, the idea that impartiality requires that we give equal and/or adequate consideration to the interests of all concerned parties goes well beyond the requirements of the merely formal notion. (In the coin toss case, it is quite clear that Phil's claims to the heirloom are not being given equal or adequate consideration.) As a characterization of moral impartiality, however, this suggestion is considerably more promising."

From 6,

"The constitutional role of the civil service is to support the serving Chief Executive and his Government. The two features of the civil service, namely permanency and political impartiality, enable it to perform such role. The permanent nature of the civil service provides stability and continuity to the governance of Hong Kong through changing times and changing political leadership. The permanency of the civil service goes hand-in-hand with its political impartiality. The civil service must be politically impartial in order to serve the Chief Executive, the Principal Officials and the Government of the day - whatever their political persuasion - with total loyalty on the one hand; and to retain the confidence of - and serve with equal loyalty - a future Chief Executive, future Principal Officials and future Government of perhaps a different political persuasion on the other.

The concept of a politically neutral civil service does not mean that it needs not engage in any work with political content. It means that the civil service must give full support and commitment to the Government of the day. In making policies, civil servants put forward honest and impartial advice on policy options formulated by the Government of the day to their best abilities. Once decisions are taken by the political tier, civil servants will, regardless of their own personal convictions, implement the decisions taken and discharge their public functions without fear or favour. Traditionally, senior civil servants have been involved in work with political content, such as explaining and defending government policies and decisions, and lobbying for support for them. With the introduction of additional political appointments, the political team will play a more important role in this aspect of work. However, this does not mean that civil servants, particularly senior officers, need not engage in such work in the future. There is no incompatibility with civil service political neutrality for them to take on such work. Nevertheless, under the principle of upholding the core value of political neutrality, civil servants should not engage in certain political work, such as election politics or personal electioneering activities or those of political parties. "

From 7, "Impersonal bureaucratic impartiality, on the other hand, requires that a person publicly charged with performing duties, or with distributing benefits of any kind,—grants, jobs, pensions, compensation for injuries, examination marks, personal references,—should consciously and deliberately exclude all personal ties to the recipients of these benefits, and conduct himself solely according to the formal rules of the system. If a local authority has a house available, then it must be offered to the next person on the waiting list, and to no other; if a post is vacant in a public body, then it must go to the most highly qualified applicant; if a Land Reform Board has plots of land for distribution, then they must go to those who have rights to them under the law, and only in the order of precedence established by the law."

Interjecting Reference

From 8, Page 15/204(PDF):

Let us imagine that there is a group of people. They don’t know one another, but they have X in common. Let us assume that X stands for property. Because of X they decide to form a group to protect the rights bestowed upon them because of their possession of X. In establishing the group, they agree to a set of rules to govern the group. The rules serve their individual interests of protecting X and their rights to hold X. As a group, they adopt symbols, language, laws, establish institutions, and ultimately enter into a binding agreement to protect X.

Next, let us further imagine that over time others wish to join the group. It is not a stretch to imagine that there will be a number of issues that will surface. The individuals seeking to join the group are at an obvious disadvantage in relationship to the founding members on several accounts: (1) the laws and institutions governing the group are reflective of the interests and concerns of the founding members, (2) the original agreement did not include the Others, (3) Power rest almost exclusively in the hands of the members, and (4) upon entering the group, the Others have no rights. As a result, we end up with two distinct classes of people. The first class of people consists of those who have rights from the beginning and as members of the group go about ensuring the state or others do not infringe upon those rights. Conversely, the second class consists of those who enter into the group with essentially no rights and must use the mechanisms and laws set up by the founding members to secure rights or advance rights-claims. What we are talking about here is the classic distinction between negative and positive liberty. In the above story, the founding members of the group establish the terms of agreement and define neutrality. The so-named neutral position is constructed through the lens of the original members. The laws, language, institutions, and structures are skewed to their benefit and normalized through practices and behaviors of the members. Consequently, their ideals and beliefs come to be considered natural, obvious, and therefore true. Others who enter the group must adopt the terms of

agreement and the definition of neutrality of the group in order to participate even if they are incommensurate or undermine their own beliefs and values.

Freely available weblinks

Political Neutrality

http://www.peterlevine.ws/mt/archives/2005/11/political-neutr.html

https://drum.umd.edu/dspace/bitstream/1903/4088/1/umi-umd-3868.pdf

http://dspace.rice.edu/bitstream/1911/13692/1/1355171.PDF

Philosophy

http://www.bilkent.edu.tr/~wigley/simonwigleyenvy-free.pdf

http://cowles.econ.yale.edu/P/cd/d14b/d1477-a.pdf

Judicial

http://jec.unm.edu/resources/judicial_handbook/ethics/index.htm

Political

http://www.doi.gov/ethics/docs/eg02unbooked.pdf

Research/Subscription weblinks

JSTOR:

Neutrality and the Emergence of the Concept of Neutralism Peter Lyon The Review of Politics, Vol. 22, No. 2 (Apr., 1960), pp. 255-268 This article consists of 14 page(s).

Review: [Untitled] Reviewed Work(s): The Concept of Neutrality in Classical Greece by Robert A. Bauslaugh Author(s) of Review: W. J. McCoy The American Journal of Philology, Vol. 114, No. 2 (Summer, 1993), pp. 317-319 doi:10.2307/295318 This article consists of 3 page(s).