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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 May 2020
Professions are increasingly central to any grasp of contemporary democratic societies. Their expertise in matters of vital public interest has gained them special privilege in the social order, including the authority to prescribe and police the rules which govern the application of specialized knowledge. This privileged autonomy is justified by the professions' claim that it is the sole source of competence to evaluate professional performance and is also sufficiently ethical to control deviant behavior. Of prime importance to students of politics and public policy is the exercise of professional power and its relation to the public interest, for at issue here is nothing less than the authoritative allocation of values within that slice of social life served by the professions.
1 There is considerable debate among serious observers of the professions as to what constitutes a “profession”. Numerous structural and behavioral characteristics have been analyzed in the literature. For the purposes of this essay, however, I need only point out that there is a virtual consensus among commentators that ethics are of central importance in describing what is meant by a “profession”.
2 Freidson, Eliot, Profession of Medicine(New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1973).Google Scholar
3 “Professions,”The Sociological Eye: Selected Papers (Chicago: Aldine-Atherton, 1971), p. 42.
4 There are other forms, of course (the American Political Science Association, for example, issues “advisory opinions” on matters relating to professional ethics). But the form taken by professional ethics is not a crucial variable in terms of this essay.
5 Schattschneider, E.E., The Semi-Sovereign People (New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1960), p.71.Google Scholar
6 Hierarchies, Hidden: The Professions and Government (New York: Harper and Row, 1966), p. 242.Google Scholar
7 The Symbolic Uses of Politics (Urbana, Illinois: University of Illinois Press, 1964).
8 “The Political Language of the Helping Professions,” Politics and Society, 4 (1974), p. 304.
9 Schattschneider, op. cit. note 5, p. 7.
10 Professions and Monopoly: A Study of Medicine in the United States and Great Britain (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1975), p. 66.
11 The competitive bidding case in National Society of Professional Engineers v. United States, 98 S. Ct. 1355 (1978). The minimum fee schedules were struck down in Goldfarb v. Virginia State Bar, 95 S. Ct. 2004 (1975).
12 Benham, Lee and Benham, Alexandra, “Regulating Through the Professions: A Perspective on Information Control,” The Journal of Law and Economics, 18 (October 1975).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
13 ln certain cases (e.g., law, pharmacy) a profession's ethical standards are codified into law and, theoretically at least, enforced by the state. But those most directly responsible for enforcement, i.e., state regulatory or licensing boards, are typically controlled by members of the profession over which the board has jurisdiction.
14 For example, in medicine, see Derbyshire, Robert C., “Medical Ethics and Discipline,“ Journal of the American Medical Association, 228 (April 1, 1974), pp. 59–62.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed In psychiatry, see Zitrin, Arthur and Klein, Henriette, “Can Psychiatry Police Itself Effectively? The Experience of One District Branch,” American Journal of Psychiatry, 133 (June 1976), pp. 653-56.Google ScholarPubMed And in law, consult Marks, F. Raymond and Cathcart, Darlene, “Discipline within the Legal Profession: Is It Self-Regulation?,” Illinois Law Forum, No. 2 (1974), pp. 193-236.Google Scholar
15 See note 6.
16 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1978).
17 (Lexington, Mass.: D.C. Heath and Co., 1980).
18 See note 10.
19 See note 2.
20 McKean, Roland N.,“Some Economic Aspects of Ethical-Behavioral Codes,” Political Studies, 27 (June 1979), pp. 251-65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
21 Politics and Society, 4 (Fall 1974), pp. 295-310.