Ethics in Public and Private Life

Ethics in public and private life are deeply interconnected, shaping both individual behaviour and societal harmony. While distinct, both realms influence each other—ethical private conduct fosters moral public behaviour, and ethical governance upholds societal integrity. 

Understanding this relationship is crucial for maintaining a just and responsible society where individuals and institutions uphold ethical principles in all aspects of life. It is also important to bring a work-life balance for civil servants and prevent conflict of interest.

Public Life

Public life refers to the collection of a person’s relationships, interactions and dealings with the society at large. Different values and ethical standards are followed in public life. 

Importance of Ethics in Public Life:

Ethical framework in the public life helps in achieving the good in the society.  High moral principles based on the constitution help in achieving a welfare society. It further benefits in the following manner: 

• In a democracy, every holder of public office is accountable to the people. Such accountability is enforced through a system of laws and rules. Ethics in public life provides the basis for the creation of such laws and rules.

• It is the moral ideas of people that give rise to and shape the character of laws and rules.
• It strengthens the trusteeship relationship between the public and the officials.

Nolan Committee

One of the most comprehensive statements of what constitutes ethical standards for holders of public office came from the Committee on Standards in Public Life in the United Kingdom in 1994 to promote ethical conduct in public office. It is popularly known as the Nolan Committee worldwide.

It introduced the Seven Principles of Public Life—Selflessness, Integrity, Objectivity, Accountability, Openness, Honesty, and Leadership—to ensure transparency and accountability in governance:

• Selflessness: Holders of public office should make decisions solely in terms of public interest. They should not do so in order to gain financial or other material benefits for themselves, their family or their friends.

• Integrity: Holders of public office should not place themselves under any financial or other obligation to outside individuals or organizations that might influence them in the performance of their official duties.

• Objectivity: In carrying out public business, including making public appointments, awarding contracts or recommending individuals for rewards and benefits, holders of public office should make choices on merit.

• Accountability: Holders of public office are accountable for their decisions and actions to the public and must submit themselves to whatever scrutiny is appropriate to their office.

• Openness: Holders of public office should be as open as possible about all the decisions and actions they take. They should give reasons for their decisions and restrict information only when the wider public interest clearly demands.

• Honesty: Holders of public office have a duty to declare any private interests relating to their public duties and to take steps to resolve any conflicts arising in a way that protects the public interest.

• Leadership: Holders of public office should promote and support these principles by leadership.

Private Life

Private life is integrated with family members, life partners, friends, colleagues etc. These kinds of relationships are based on emotional attachments, and personal bonding with them rather than simply a formal mechanism. 

Ethics in Private Life

Ethics in private life is shaped and affected by the following factors:

• Family: Family is the first foundation where ethical values are seeded into one’s own mind. If a family encourages and supports you in times of crisis then you can take any hard decision, which is ethically correct. 

• In addition, the parent is the first friend and guide to a child. They teach him not to be greedy, kind towards others, be empathetic. It will be helpful in shaping a child’s intellectual ability and cognitive skills.
• Friends: One famous quote says “Our friend circle tells our character”. The role of friends plays in moulding one’s personality. For Example – In Mahabharata, though Karna is individually moral and has greater war skills than Arjuna his decision to fight along with Kauravas’s side makes him unpopular which leads to his death in Kurukshetra. It’s just because he promised his friend Duryodhana to help in the war.

Values in Private Life

• Love and care: These emotions are the bedrock of private relationships and also sustain them. This bond is driven by human emotions. 

• Trust and Truthfulness: Private relations are based upon truth and trust. Since there are no rules and regulations, trust matters the most.

•  Responsibility: Our private life often creates responsibility for us towards different people. This is because people have some emotional or practical expectations of each other. For example, spouses, friends etc. expect certain kinds of behaviour from each other.

• Confidentiality: Private relations require secrecy and privacy, as opposed to public relationships.

• Perseverance: We must ensure stability and harmony in our private relations. This often requires persistent effort by both parties during times of discord. For instance, spouses often get into fights after which they are expected to cooperate to preserve the relationship.

Ethics in public and private life often complement each other. However, in various scenarios, they might come into conflict with each other.

Relation between Ethics in Private and Public relationships:

Ethics in private life lays the foundation for ethics in public life. For example Epics like Ramayana and Mahabharat a classic examples of ethics in public and private relationships. For example, Satya Harischandra always speaks the truth.

Common ethics for Public and private relationship

Unethical actions in public life may affect private life. A person who is unethical in his public life can hardly be expected to be ethical in his private life and vice versa. For instance, A dishonest civil servant is least expected to show integrity in his personal relationship.

And therefore, most of the ethical principles apply to both public and private life. For example:

• Honesty: Both kinds of relationships expect truthful behaviour without which there is a loss of trust and confidence.

• Interpersonal factors: Both relationships are not mechanical but involve interpersonal behaviour. Therefore, both require individuals to have basic sensitivity, empathy, care etc. so that both parties understand each other better.

• Accountability: We are held responsible for our behaviour in both relationships. We must answer and account for our actions to maintain trust and confidence.

• Compassion: Helping others is a good deed that is desirable in both public and private relationships.

Crisis of Conscience

When there is a difference between ethics in public and private life there is a crisis of conscience or dissonance. For example, one civil servant may have an opinion based on personal experience that women should not be allowed in Sabarimala Temple. However, he has to follow the Supreme Court verdict in allowing women. This may lead to a crisis of conscience.

A person might portray himself to be secular in public life but actually has a negative attitude towards others’ religion. This creates a crisis of conscience.

Lesson from a Leader

Once an old lady brought his son to Gandhiji to preach to him stop eating sugar. But didn’t say anything at that moment and asked that lady to come back after one month. During this gap, Gandhiji stopped eating sugar. After one month he was in a moral position to ask that young boy to not eat sugar.

Difference in Ethics in Private and Public Relationships: 

However, sometimes the principles of ethics apply differently in public and private relationships.

There are various differences between Private and Public life as follows:

	Private Relationship	Public Relationship
Nature of Relationship	A private relationship is between the people we personally connect with, i.e. with relations built in a closed space called Family, friends, or spouse.	Public relations are between the people that we externally connect out of personal space like community, Colleagues at the office, govt-citizen
	Relations here permanent in nature	Temporary in nature in the form of transfers, moving to a different company
	Ethics in private relations is based on personal values, morality and family values. These are generally not codified and are regulated by emotional bonding.	Ethics in Public relationships is generally based on societal and personal norms. These are generally Codified in the form of a code of ethics, norms, rules and laws.
Treatment for Violation	Violation generally goes unpunished but can have social consequences e.g. Loss of reputation in society.	There are legal, social, and professional implications if norms are violated.
	Get punished by parents if we hurt others or apologise in words	Penal provisions there for wrongdoings
Nature of Engagement with Others	There is no limit to expressing our emotions here. For example, we can get angry with family members.	There should be a desirable way of emotional expression. For example, there is a limit to expressing our anger on subordinates.
	There are expectations between closely connected people	Not many expectations between members of the public life
Important Values	Love and care, Confidentiality, Truthfulness, Responsibility, Perseverance	Openness, Honesty and integrity, Respect, Rule of law, Equality and uniformity, and Accountability.

Need for Separation of Public and Private Relationships

Due to such marked differences in the nature of these relationships, it is often required for a person to keep public and private relationships separate.

1. Neither public life should affect private relationships nor private life should affect public relationships. The negative influence of one might ruin both.
2. Conflict of Interest in Public Life: There should be a separation between personal and professional life else civil servants might be charged with favouritism and nepotism, etc. Keeping public and private relationships separate helps in preventing conflicts of interest.
3. Confidentiality: There are different values to be adhered to in personal and professional life. For example, confidentiality is a preferred value in personal life while openness is the prime value in public life. 
4. Work-life balance: Separating public and private relationships is essential for maintaining work-life balance. It reduces stress and enhances efficiency. Clear boundaries ensure professionalism at work while allowing personal relationships to thrive without workplace conflicts or undue influence.

Further, Society tends to judge people separately in their public and private spheres, and hence it is better to keep them separate.

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