TY - JOUR
T1 - Combatting corruption with public deliberation
AU - Ani, Emmanuel Ifeanyi
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© South African Journal of Philosophy.
PY - 2015/1/2
Y1 - 2015/1/2
N2 - Building on Seumas Millers concept of corruption leads me to conclude that the question of disposition is central to the concept of corruption, which prompts me to consider punishment theories with regard to deterring dispositions to corruption. However, problems with punishment as a stand-alone approach lead me to consider institutional reform recommendations. Although institutional reforms have the weakness of merely engaging corrupt disposition in a hide-and-seek game, I seek to reconcile institutional approaches and moral individualism by suggesting that the former is intended to aid the latter, in the sense that resisting corruption is a question of cost, and the onus is to determine how to reduce this cost. In this regard, prevailing proposals are inept without an enabling environment: public deliberation (comprising publicity and deliberation) is a necessary (though not sufficient) condition for combating corruption, because it (1) compels reason to function at its best, (2) demands rational accountability, and therefore account-giving, (3) increases common-good thinking, (4) facilitates the recruitment of responsible institutional role-occupants, and (5) is a self-correcting instrument.
AB - Building on Seumas Millers concept of corruption leads me to conclude that the question of disposition is central to the concept of corruption, which prompts me to consider punishment theories with regard to deterring dispositions to corruption. However, problems with punishment as a stand-alone approach lead me to consider institutional reform recommendations. Although institutional reforms have the weakness of merely engaging corrupt disposition in a hide-and-seek game, I seek to reconcile institutional approaches and moral individualism by suggesting that the former is intended to aid the latter, in the sense that resisting corruption is a question of cost, and the onus is to determine how to reduce this cost. In this regard, prevailing proposals are inept without an enabling environment: public deliberation (comprising publicity and deliberation) is a necessary (though not sufficient) condition for combating corruption, because it (1) compels reason to function at its best, (2) demands rational accountability, and therefore account-giving, (3) increases common-good thinking, (4) facilitates the recruitment of responsible institutional role-occupants, and (5) is a self-correcting instrument.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84927178611&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/02580136.2015.1010131
DO - 10.1080/02580136.2015.1010131
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84927178611
SN - 0258-0136
VL - 34
SP - 13
EP - 28
JO - South African Journal of Philosophy
JF - South African Journal of Philosophy
IS - 1
ER -