Ethics and Civility: Jointly Serving Public Servants
Frankfort, KY – The National Institute for Civil Discourse (NICD)‘s Next Generation program hosted civility and ethics sessions for all members of the Kentucky State House and Senate. The sessions were led by Next Generation’s Legislative Liason Dr. Thom Little, who has been facilitating workshops on these topics for over 20 years. Little stressed that while the two sessions were separate, the lessons within were anything but. He said “Being civil with each other is part of ethical behavior, they are intertwined.”
When many think of legislative ethics, they may imagine rules regarding prohibited behaviors and unique hypotheticals. The more commonplace tensions, however, exist in the crucial job of working on behalf of your constituents while balancing the responsibilities each member has to their conscience, family, personal values, party, and the entire state they serve. The work of preparing for these challenges is paramount, and can set legislators up with the tools to navigate future conflicts effectively.
Legislators were given the opportunity to prepare for the ethical challenges that will confront them during their time in office, including what they might do when what’s good for their constituents is bad for the state, or when the people they represent want something that the member has a philosophical opposition to. The emphasis remained that in these rare moments where the right thing to do is not apparent, the work they do to anticipate these conflicts will pay dividends.
The ethics session also served as a reminder of how much members across party lines can still have in common. The challenges that their constituents face can serve as a uniting force, and Little encouraged the legislators to listen to each other with empathy rather than with intention to defeat.
By recognizing the similarities among themselves, legislators can see each other less as enemies and more as colleagues. This can drive cross-party collaboration even when the politics might not encourage it. With the membership of both chambers in attendance, the session proved an opportunity to engage legislators before the session started. Civility and ethics continue to reinforce each other, and the sessions in Kentucky allowed legislators to practice the skills that will serve them, and Kentuckians, well in the future.
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About NICD, the National Institute for Civil Discourse
NICD works to build the nation’s capacity to engage our differences constructively. In 2011, the University of Arizona created NICD after the Tucson shooting that killed six people and wounded another thirteen, including former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. In the weeks prior to the shooting, Congresswoman Giffords was already in discussion with the University of Arizona about creating a center that would focus on improving the quality of discourse. The galvanizing power of that event brought together founding honorary co-chairs George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton and an impressive bipartisan group of other leaders to honor Congresswoman Giffords’ vision.
Next Generation is one of NICD’s most important programs that creates and strengthens bipartisan relationships through mutual, trust-based, and effective communication in state legislatures around the country.
NICD offers Americans a variety of opportunities and resources to engage differences constructively at https://civildiscourseinstitute.org/.
