Governing Public Virtue. "Conflict of Interest" in Comparative Perspective

从对何塞•曼努埃尔•巴罗佐离开欧盟后在高盛的职业生涯的愤怒，到对唐纳德•特朗普商业利益范围的担忧，“利益冲突”（COI）——经合组织将其定义为“公职人员的公共责任与私人利益之间的冲突”——已经成为我们这个政治时代的核心词汇。尽管COI对许多自由民主国家构成了紧迫的挑战，但令人惊讶的是，我们对COI如何成为公众关注的历史知之甚少，以及为什么它的主要政策决议采取了道德而不是法律监管的外衣。本研究项目的目的是首次说明“利益冲突”的历史出现，作为思考美国、法国和英国公共生活中不正当影响的合法框架。因此，这个研究项目将弥补我们学术知识上的巨大差距，并有助于对当代治理形式的辩论。更具体地说，有三个问题将指导数据收集：1)COI在多大程度上是美国的“出口”产品？事实上，“利益冲突”这个标签似乎起源于上世纪60年代的美国法律思想，但可以说是在很久之后，即上世纪90年代，在英国和法国发展成为公共生活中的一个争论点。因此，本研究项目将密切关注COI的国际流通动态和COI政策制定，以及文化转移的非线性模式。它还将研究国际（倡导）机构在多大程度上帮助将COI作为20世纪90年代英国和法国的一种制度话语和监管结构脱颖而出。2)谁是公共美德的企业家？该项目将确定各种行为者——律师、法律顾问、经济学家、公共政策学者、政策制定者、政治家——他们将COI问题化，将利害攸关的“利益”类型编入法典，并将其推进政治议程。它将仔细研究他们的动员工作，他们的辩论，以及他们帮助制定政策建议的各种方式。3) COI与公共生活道德化之间的关系是什么？这个项目将探索从初步调查中出现的一个关键谜团：将COI具体化为一个“道德”问题，通过道义准则和道德准则来解决，而不是作为一个“犯罪”问题。因此，这个项目将有助于我们理解国家、市场和道德之间的关系。这些问题将回答使用混合方法的研究设计，结合档案研究和定性访谈在美国，英国和法国。在每个国家，数据收集将侧重于COI建设中的重要时刻和机构（见支持案例）。它将借鉴PI在精英行政、金融和政府背景下进行研究的经验。这项研究的结果将为社会学、政治学、历史学和公共行政学的广泛学术受众提供信息。其学术贡献将通过学术文章、会议报告和专著来传达。本研究的目的也在于通过COI和COI法规的特定棱镜，促进关于如何巩固我们的民主制度的更广泛的政策辩论。这将通过以下方式实现：a)外联活动（专栏文章、公开讲座、项目网站），旨在教育公众关于COI的知识；b)针对决策者的专业发展倡议（在公共事务学院开设关于COI的课程，召集学者和决策者召开会议）。

From outrage over José Manuel Barroso's post-EU career at Goldman Sachs, to concerns over the scope of Donald Trump's business interests, "conflict of interest" (COI)-defined by the OECD as a "conflict between the public duty and private interests of a public official"-has become a central word of our political age. Despite the pressing challenge that COI poses to many liberal democracies, we know surprisingly little about the history of how COI came to public prominence, and why its dominant policy resolutions took on moral, rather than legal, regulatory clothes. The purpose of this research project is to provide the first account of the historical emergence of "conflict of interest" as a legitimate framework to think about undue influences in public life in the United States, France and the United Kingdom. This research project will thus both bridge a considerable gap in our academic knowledge, and contribute to debates about contemporary forms of governance.Three questions will, more specifically, guide data collection:1) To what extent is COI an American "export" product? The label "conflict of interest", indeed, seems to originate within US legal thought in the 1960s, but arguably developed as a point of contention in public life much later, in the 1990s, in the UK and in France. This research project will thus pay close attention to the dynamics of international circulation of COI and COI policy formulations, and to non-linear modalities of cultural transfers. It will also examine the extent to which international (advocacy) institutions helped bring COI to prominence as an institutional discourse and regulatory structure in the UK and France in the 1990s.2) Who are the entrepreneurs of public virtue? This project will identify the various actors-lawyers, legal counsellors, economists, public policy scholars, policymakers, politicians-who problematised COI, codified the type of 'interests' at stake, and pushed it forward on the political agenda. It will closely examine their mobilisation efforts, their debates, and the various ways in which they helped shape policy proposals. 3) What is the relation between COI and the moralisation of public life? This project will explore what appeared from preliminary investigations as a key mystery: the crystallisation of COI as a "moral" problem, to be solved by deontological guidelines and ethical codes, rather than as a "criminal" issue. This project will thus contribute to our understanding of the relations between state, market and morals.These questions will be answered using a mixed-methodology research design, combining archival research and qualitative interviewing in the US, the UK and in France. Data collection will be focused, in each country, on salient moments and institutions in the construction of COI (see Case for Support). It will draw on the PI's experience conducting research in elite administrative, financial, and governmental contexts.The findings of this research will inform a broad academic audience in sociology, political science, history and public administration. Its academic contributions will be delivered through scholarly articles, conference presentations, and a monograph. This research aims, as well, to contribute to wider policy debates about how to consolidate our democratic regimes through the particular prism of COI and COI regulations. This will be achieved by a) outreach activities (op-eds, public lectures, project-website) meant to educate the general public about COI, and b) professional development initiatives aimed at policy-makers (a course on COI to be taught in schools of public affairs, a conference bringing together scholars and policymakers).