The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) publishes a Summary of Ethics Rules. One of its statements is “Employees shall not use public office for private gain.” Some countries view using public office for private gain to be corrupt; to others, it may be the status quo.
Respond to the following in a minimum of 175 words;
Research definitions of the term “corruption.”
State your opinion on using public office for private gain (is it right or wrong?), and state to which classical ethical theory your outlook aligns.
Week 1 Discussion: Ethics Rules
Corruption removes trust, weakens democracy, brings inequality, poverty, social division, and environmental crisis, and develops obstacles to economic development as a whole. In short, corruption exposes the economy of any country. It may take place in the country in different forms such as public servants demanding money in exchange for any service or misuse of the political powers and money for their friends and families. It is not necessary that corruption takes place in nations and societies, instead, business houses, media, and other people also commit corrupt things in some form or another. Anyone can get involved in corruption whether a normal citizen, public servant, or even government official to satisfy their need for money and power (Transparency International, 2022). In terms of theory, corruption is not limited to one definition, instead, there are many out of which, the most used is it is an activity to abuse public office to get private benefits. However, various research has found that the definition of corruption differs between the issues developed (Liu, 2016).
According to government reports and US constitution studies, an individual should not use public office for private gain or the benefit of their families and friends. I also agree with the statement that public office should not be used for private gains (US Department of the Interior, 2022). Public office is meant to serve the people of the nation or community as a whole. Therefore, being an employee of the public office does not hand over the power to use it for their 8privileges. It is also unacceptable that the employee is using public office which is not allowed by the government. Therefore, in some regions such as the US, it is considered to be the practice of corruption. My outlook on corruption and private gains belong to the classical theory of hypothesis as with this theory, I can be able to look at the major problem of the world.
References
Transparency International (2022). What is corruption? Retrieved on 19th September 2022, from: https://www.transparency.org/en/what-is-corruption
Liu, X. (2016). A literature review on the definition of corruption and factors affecting the risk of corruption. Open Journal of Social Sciences, 4(6), 171-177. Retrieved on 19th September 2022, from: https://www.scirp.org/journal/paperinformation.aspx?paperid=67745
US department of the interior (2022). Use of your public office. Retrieved on 19th September 2022, from: https://www.doi.gov/ethics/use-of-your-public-office
