Although the number of studies focusing on the importance of public administration ethics is increasing, very little research in the literature has focused on precisely determining what constitutes the essence of public administration ethics. The phenomenon of ethics examines value judgments that can be characterized as good-bad and right-wrong. The concept of public administration ethics, or managerial ethics, can be defined as a standard for evaluating the behaviors or actions of public officials in providing public services as good-bad, right-wrong. The quality of public services and the roles of public officials in providing these services have a direct impact on citizens' ethical perceptions, satisfaction, and lives. In the reciprocal relationship between public administration and society, a particularly important and often decisive aspect is the behavior of public officials in fulfilling their duties to the public and whether they act in accordance with the law. In this context, the aim of this study is to examine the fundamental principles of managerial ethics and to address its role in the state-citizen relationship. The study first focuses on the definition of the concept of ethics. Subsequently, public administration ethics and its emergence are examined, and different views in the literature regarding the origins of managerial ethics are evaluated. Finally, the study examined the relationship between institutional trust and ethics. It concluded that managerial ethics is a factor that enhances institutional trust in the state-citizen relationship; therefore, public administrations and states need to develop various strategies to establish ethical governance in order to increase trust in the state.