By Julian Culp and Megan Foster
Abstract:Gillian Brock’s Corruption and Global Justice engages with one of the presently most worrying topics of our world: the problem of corruption. Corruption is a major challenge because it implies that many of the tasks that should be carried out by public officials and other professionals are not carried out at all or involve higher costs than they otherwise would. This is deeply problematic, since the effective and efficient exercise of public and professional roles is crucial for realizing claims of global justice, including the fulfillment of basic human needs and interests. It might be surprising to learn then, as Brock tells us, that the topic of corruption has been largely ignored by global justice theorists. In this article we question this assumption by situating Brock’s book in the context of intense discussions of the nature of global distributive justice and the desirability of realizing it through so-called international development assistance. Then, we present some of the key insights of this debate concerning the importance of structures of accountability for the effectiveness of such assistance. Finally, our article will question whether the backward-looking nature of these accountability structures is compatible with Brock’s forward-looking framework of the responsibility to fight corruption.
Published:
2025
DOI:
doi.org./DOI 10.17473/2240-7987-2025-2-2
Online available:
www.fqpjournal.com
PDF:
Culp-Foster_Corruption and Global Justice Theory
(398.04 KB)