Public Office, Rewards

Salvador Parrado

The term rewards refers to any kind of tangible income and intangible compensation or honor attached to public office. Rewards are relevant in political science because they link the adequate compensation of our rulers with their performance. On the one hand, in democratic systems, proper compensation includes the reward level and the transparency of the reward structure for public scrutiny. Concerns of transparency, corruption, and public trust in rulers are relevant for creating a proper reward system. On the other hand, the performance of public officials relates to achievement at the individual and organizational levels, which in turn are linked to the legitimacy of democracy. These dimensions have been tackled by normative and positive political theories. Normative theories prescribe what political choices ought to be made according to some philosophical values, such as representativeness, competitiveness, and functionality of rewards for public officials in relation to the rest of society. Positive ...

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