HOW IS VIRTUE ETHICS DIFFERENT PHILOSOPHY ESSAY     pt2       1800w

Minor or major forms of corruption, but no matter the distinguishing of varying degrees, no one is better off than the other. Corruption is corruption and should not be condoned. No one can claim ignorance to it since it is something that can be found in different levels and at varying degrees. Elliott writes:

It occurs in democracies and military dictatorships, and at all levels of development and in all types of economic systems, from open capitalist economies such as that of the United States to centrally planned economies such as the former Soviet Union’s (1997, p.1).

Corruption has globalised in the past few years and has emerged as a global issue. Corruption does not have a singular universal definition but several authors have come up with different definitions that will sum up the concept of corruption. Several scholars have sought to define it but corruption is not a concept that can be confined to one simple definition because different people and offices define it differently, as it relates to them. Corruption can be defined by public opinion, as well as official law of nations and also as it affects the general public. Therefore there are different definitions of corruption. However, I will prefer to focus on public corruption, which is corruption by public officials. Public corruption is defined by Neild as: “the breaking by public persons, for the sake of private financial or political gain, of the rules of conduct in public affairs prevailing in a society in the period under consideration” (2002, p.5). Features of corruption can include cronyism, bribery, fraud, nepotism, embezzlement, favouritism, trafficking.

There have been a lot of suggestions and ways on how to tackle corruption; different organisations such as the OECD, Transparency International (TI), and European Union have initiated a lot anti-corruption reforms such as taxation, development aid, and governance, however, it has not been as effective as it ought to be. This is where the need for the application of virtue ethics emerges. I belie