Ethicality of the behaviour of the officers of state institutions and the representatives of business

Abstract

In a market economy, the main task of state institutions is to reduce uncertainty by setting frameworks that affect actions and decisions of all the actors in the market. The effectiveness of the implementation of socio-economic strategies and plans depends on the efficiency of the system adopted and its coherence. Ineffective and unethical institutions may lead to an accumulation of pathological phenomena. On the one hand they hinder the free, and not unreasonably restricted, development of all actors in the market, and on the other hand they may lead to a situation in which the uncontrollable symptoms of ‘animal instinct’ will come into play, provoking irrational, too risky or even harmful behaviours. This in turn raises the need to develop state mechanisms that reconcile the requirements of economic, social and political efficiency whilst at the same time respecting ethical standards. The aim of the study presented in this article was to demonstrate
that the correlation between ethically acting of representatives of state  institutions and the ethical behaviour of business representatives is not sufficiently recognised and appreciated, and that the introduction of a system of ethics, consisting of objective assessments, implies the ethical selfregulation of socio-economic entities and of the economic development of the state.