Andrew Stark

Bio: Andrew Stark is an academic researcher from University of Toronto. The author has contributed to research in topics: Politics & Conflict of interest. The author has an hindex of 11, co-authored 32 publications receiving 649 citations.

What's the matter with business ethics?

Abstract: The more business ethics secures its status in campuses across the country, the more bewildering it appears to actual managers. It's not that managers dislike the idea of doing the right thing. As University of Toronto Assistant Professor Andrew Stark argues, far too many business ethicists just haven't offered them the practical advice they need. Before business ethics became a formal discipline, advocates of corporate social responsibility claimed that the market would ultimately reward ethical behavior. But ethics and interests did not always intersect so fruitfully in the real world. And when they did not, managers were left in the dark to grope for the right ethical course. In the 1970s, the brand-new field of business ethics came onto the scene to address this issue. Critical of the "ethics pays" approach, academics held that ethics and interests can and do conflict. Still, scholars took an equally unrealistic line. To them, a manager's motivation could be either altruistic or self-interested, but never both. In short, ethicists still weren't addressing the difficult moral dilemmas that managers face on a day-to-day basis, and only recently have they begun to do so. After some initial stumbles, ethicists are getting their hands dirty and seriously considering the costs of doing the right thing. Finally, a new business ethics is emerging that acknowledges and accepts the messy world of mixed motives. As a result, novel concepts are springing up: moderation, pragmatism, minimalism, among others.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Conflict of Interest in the Professions

Abstract: Conflicts of interest pose special problems for the professions. Even the appearance of a conflict of interest can undermine essential trust between professional and public. This volume is a comprehensive and accessible guide to the ramifications and problems associated with important issue. It contains fifteen new essays by noted scholars and covers topics in law, medicine, journalism, engineering, financial services, and others.

Conflict of Interest in American Public Life

Abstract: Acknowledgments Introduction I Conflict 1. The Perils of Prophylactic Law 2. The Topography of Conflict 3. Self-Dealing 4. Undue Influence 5. Abuse of Office 6. Private Payment for Public Acts 7. Private Gain from Public Office 8. The Revolving Door: I 9. The Revolving Door: II Summary II Interest 10. Interest, Bias, and Ideology 11. Limousine Liberals, Country-Club Conservatives 12. On Character in American Politics 13. Self-Generated versus Other-Imposed Encumbrances on Judgment 14. Quid Pro Quo and Campaign Finance 15. Spousal Interests 16. Combination of Roles and Ex Parte Contacts 17. Hold the Interest, Vary the Role 18. De Minimis Summary III Appearances 19. The Meaning of "The Appearance of Official Impropriety" 20. The Legalistic Attack on the Appearance Standard 21. The Political Justification for the Appearance Standard IV Remedies 22. Recusal, Divestiture, Balance, and Disclosure 23. What Is a Balanced Committee? 24. Disclosure and Its Discontents Conclusion Notes Index

What Is the New Public Management

Abstract: True, there is a defined (if unwieldly) set of ideas that usually gets conjured up whenever NPM is the topic of discussion: competition between public and private service providers; decentralization and delayering of government bureaus; more choice for citizens; benchmarking and output measurements; performance contracts and other financial incentives for public servants; creation of inter-nal markets; and assimilation; within the public sector, of private-sector management techniques including better risk-management. Yet despite this emergent consensus on NPM's specific content, several scholars have concluded that NPM embodies "radically different, indeed conflicting goals" (Kettl 1995, 14) or that it dis-plays a "disparate, and at times contradictory, set of traits.... Indeed, sometimes the new public management seems like an empty canvas: you can paint on it whatever you like. There is no clear or agreed definition of what the new public management actually is .. ." (Ferlie et al. 1996, 10). These statements imply that, notwithstanding the agreed-upon specifics, NPM seems prey to a lack of clarity at a more theoretical level.

The Collapse of Canada

Abstract: America's northern neighbour faces a severe constitutional crisis. Unprecedented levels of public support for sovereignty in the predominantly French-speaking province of Quebec could lead to the breakup of Canada. This crisis was precipitated by two Canadian provinces' failure in 1990 to ratify the Meech Lake Accord, a package of revisions to Canada's constitution that addressed Quebec's grievances concerning its place within the Canadian federation. The current predicament is not an isolated incident - it is part of a recurring pattern of consitutional crises in Canada. The longer-term question is, can workable solutions be found to keep Canada intact, or is a sovereign Quebec inevitable sooner or later? This book, aimed at an international audience, examines the complex roots of Canada's constitutional discontent, the options currently being considered, and possible futures for "northern North America". Kent Weaver begins with an analysis of the interaction of Canadian social divisions and political institutions in managing political conflict, arguing that traditional institutional arrangements have been irreparably undermined by social change and that current institutions often exacerbate political divisions. Stephane Dion shows how two structural factors - Quebecers' fear of disappearing within an overwhelmingly English-speaking North America and increased confidence that Quebec can stand on its own - have combined with short-term catalystic factors, notably a feeling of rejection over the collapse of the Meech Lake Accord, to shape the ebb and flow of nationalist sentiment in Quebec in recent years. Andrew Stark argues that notions of citizenship and the state associated with important philosophical currents in English Canada, create severe problems for attempts to reach an accommodation with Quebec. Keith Banting examines scenarios for Canada's future with and without a politically sovereign Quebec and the implications of these scenarios for the United States.

Conflict of Interest in Medical Research, Education, and Practice

Abstract: Collaborations of physicians and researchers with industry can provide valuable benefits to society, particularly in the translation of basic scientific discoveries to new therapies and products. Recent reports and news stories have, however, documented disturbing examples of relationships and practices that put at risk the integrity of medical research, the objectivity of professional education, the quality of patient care, the soundness of clinical practice guidelines, and the public's trust in medicine. Conflict of Interest in Medical Research, Education, and Practice provides a comprehensive look at conflict of interest in medicine. It offers principles to inform the design of policies to identify, limit, and manage conflicts of interest without damaging constructive collaboration with industry. It calls for both short-term actions and long-term commitments by institutions and individuals, including leaders of academic medical centers, professional societies, patient advocacy groups, government agencies, and drug, device, and pharmaceutical companies. Failure of the medical community to take convincing action on conflicts of interest invites additional legislative or regulatory measures that may be overly broad or unduly burdensome. Conflict of Interest in Medical Research, Education, and Practice makes several recommendations for strengthening conflict of interest policies and curbing relationships that create risks with little benefit. The book will serve as an invaluable resource for individuals and organizations committed to high ethical standards in all realms of medicine.

The Concept of Representation in Contemporary Democratic Theory

Abstract: Democratic theorists have paid increasing attention to problems of political representation over the past two decades. Interest is driven by (a) a political landscape within which electoral representation now competes with new and informal kinds of representation; (b) interest in the fairness of electoral representation, particularly for minorities and women; (c) a renewed focus on political judgment within democratic theory; and (d) a new appreciation that participation and representation are complementary forms of citizenship. We review recent innovations within democratic theory, focusing especially on problems of fairness, constituency definition, deliberative political judgment, and new, nonelectoral forms of representation.

Privatization and Its Reverse: Explaining the Dynamics of the Government Contracting Process

Abstract: Empirical evidence shows local government contracting is a dynamic process that includes movements from public delivery to markets and from market contracts back to in-house delivery.This ‘‘reversecontracting’’reflectsthe complexityofpublicserviceprovisionin aworld where market alternatives are used along with public delivery. We develop a methodology to link responses to national surveys and create a longitudinal data set that captures the dynamics of the contracting process. We present a framework that incorporates principal agent problems, government management, monitoring and citizen concerns, and market structure. Our statistical analysis finds government management, monitoring, and principal agent problems to be most important in explaining both new contracting out and contracting back-in. Professional managers recognize the importance of monitoring and the need for public engagement in the service delivery process. The results support the new public service that argues public managers do more than steer a market process; they balance technical and political concerns to secure public value.

The Dirt on Coming Clean: Perverse Effects of Disclosing Conflicts of Interest

Abstract: Conflicts of interest can lead experts to give biased and corrupt advice. Although disclosure is often proposed as a potential solution to these problems, we show that it can have perverse effects. First, people generally do not discount advice from biased advisors as much as they should, even when advisors’ conflicts of interest are disclosed. Second, disclosure can increase the bias in advice because it leads advisors to feel morally licensed and strategically encouraged to exaggerate their advice even further. As a result, disclosure may fail to solve the problems created by conflicts of interest and may sometimes even make matters worse.

What Does Corruption Mean in a Democracy

Abstract: Despite a growing interest in corruption, the topic has been absent from democratic theory. The reason is not a lack of normative issues, but rather missing links between the concepts of corruption and democracy. With few exceptions, political corruption has been conceived as departures by public officials from public rules, norms, and laws for the sake of private gain. Such a conception works well within bureaucratic contexts with well-defined offices, purposes, and norms of conduct. But it inadequately identifies corruption in political contexts, that is, the processes of contestation through which common purposes, norms, and rules are created. Corruption in a democracy, I argue, involves duplicitous violations of the democratic norm of inclusion. Such a conception encompasses the standard conception while complementing it with attention to the dynamics of inclusion and exclusion within democratic politics. By distinguishing the meanings of inclusion and exclusion within the many institutions, spheres, and associations that constitute contemporary democracies, I provide a democratic conception of corruption with a number of implications. The most important of these is that corruption in a democracy usually indicates a deficit of democracy.