Political Corruption as Breach of Reciprocity: a comment on Gillian Brock’s Corruption and Global Justice

Abstract

Gillian Brock’s book Corruption and Global Justice (2023) is a timely discussion on corruption. As Brock points out, this has been a neglected issue in political philosophy, even though its existence is a constraint on realizing many justice-related goals. The book tackles the important questions of what ought to be done about corruption, who ought to do it, and how responsibility should be shared. However, the book neglects to expand the issue of motivation, namely why citizens will join in the fight against corruption. Given that many of the solutions Brock proposes in the book require the participation of a range of stakeholders, lack of take-up by a significant number of citizens can compromise the feasibility of these proposals. In my comment, I argue we should enquire into the wrongfulness of political corruption, to account for the motivational question. Moreover, by framing political corruption as a breach of cooperation as fair reciprocity, I believe we can both discuss corruption as a relational harm, but also better account for what undermines or encourages citizens’ participation in corruption-curbing initiatives.