Institutionalizing Green Public Ethics

This chapter argues that green ethical practices can be adopted and institutionalized in policy processes despite the persistence of the Weberian bureaucratic ethos. The main argument is that institutional change beyond Weberian instrumental rationality is necessary for green ethical practices to be successfully adopted and upgraded in policy processes. It is elaborated how Weberian principles largely persist in the minds of many public officials but with increasing competition from other values and practices. This means increasing complexity, ambiguities, and institutional gaps that can be successfully exploited by undermining existing rules and norms standing in the way for green ethical reasoning.