Corruption

Corruption

Stephanie Smiley

Kaplan University

Corruption

Corruption is seen everywhere; whether it be on television, movies, in our daily routines, or we hear about it happening in our society. We as citizens can help make it stop by not cooperating, but beyond that it is out of our control. It is up to each individual police officer to know and do the right thing for the cities and states they work for and for themselves. Other countries do things differently and what we may think leads to corruption, those other countries may disagree and may not see it as a threat.

The following is the claim that I will be agreeing or disagreeing with:

“Corruption is a Western concept and is not applicable to traditional societies, where corruption does not have such a negative meaning. Many traditional societies with a “gift culture” have a different understanding of civil responsibilities and etiquette. The social structure and political traditions of many countries are based on the beneficial exchange of rewards for services rendered, and cannot survive in its absence.” (Source: iDebate.org)

I will start with that I do agree that in a lot of countries people do exchange some of their services for rewards. However, I disagree that they “cannot survive in its absence”, as stated above. I also disagree that corruption is a Western concept and that it doesn’t apply to traditional societies. Corruption happens everywhere within politics, government, the justice system, it doesn’t matter. There are just some bad people out there that gain the trust of others, then turn into somebody completely different once they have gotten where they want to be. I do not feel that these traditional societies have any less corruption within them, just because they don’t view certain things as possible ways as leading to worse.

The readings say that in many non-Western cultures that gift-giving is normal ("Frequently asked questions," ). It goes on to say that these things...