Paying Our High Public Officials

<p>In almost every liberal democratic society an issue that is a topic of constant and passionate public discussion is how much that country’s ministers legislators senior civil servants and senior judges should be paid. Nor is this surprising; the issue has considerable voyeuristic appeal particular democratic significance and important ramifications for the functioning of the public sector as a whole. However like most political debates these discussions tend to be messy fragmented and full of unverified assertions and spurious appeals to populist sentiment. It is hardly surprising that those discussions rarely succeed in putting the matter to rest. </p><p><em>Paying Our High Public Officials</em> examines the political discourse concerning this question in 17 liberal democracies (Canada the United States Mexico Norway Finland the Netherlands the United Kingdom Ireland Germany Austria Switzerland France Poland Italy Hong Kong Singapore and New Zealand). Based on many hundreds of parliamentary debates newspaper articles speeches as well as reports by think tanks and high commissions of state the book identifies seven central arguments that occur in all these societies translates them into the language of analytical philosophy and then rigorously evaluates them. This approach contributes to a better understanding of this controversy and may result in better-justified and more legitimate conclusions concerning which policy to adopt.</p>