Do we have enough ethics in government yet? An answer from fiduciary theory

In recent years, the federal government has responded to almost every new ethics scandal with yet another wave of ethics regulation. As the amount and the strictness of ethics rules have increased, commentators and officials have complained that these rules impose unnecessary restrictions. Fiduciary theory, with its emphasis on maintaining the integrity of trust-based relationships, provides an appropriate basis for evaluating whether current ethics regulations are too lax, adequate, or overly severe. This article develops a fiduciary-based methodology for evaluating ethics regulations, and then applies that methodology to four areas of regulation: restrictions on government employees' receipt of gifts, their outside financial interests, and their receipt of compensation for nonexpressive and expressive conduct.