Résumés
Abstract
This paper presents a conception of corruption informed by epistemic democratic theory. I first explain the view of corruption as a disease of the political body. Following this view, we have to consider the type of actions that debase a political entity of its constitutive principal in order to assess corruption. Accordingly, we need to consider what the constitutive principle of democracy is. This is the task I undertake in the second section where I explicate democratic legitimacy. I present democracy as a procedure of social inquiry about what ought to be done that includes epistemic and practical considerations. In the third section, I argue that the problem of corruption for a procedural conception of democracy is that the epistemic value of the procedure is diminished by corrupted agents’ lack of concern for truth. Corruption, according to this view, consists in two deformities of truth: lying and bullshit. These deformities corrupt since they conceal private interests under the guise of a concern for truth. In the fourth section, I discuss the difficulties a procedural account may face in formulating solutions to the problem of corruption.
Résumé
Cet article offre une approche du concept de corruption en fonction d’une théorie épistémique de la démocratie. J’explique d’abord l’idée de la corruption en tant que maladie du corps politique. Suivant cette approche, concevoir la corruption politique requiert de déterminer quel type d’action détourne une entité politique de son principe constitutif. Ainsi, il convient d’établir quel est le principe constitutif de la démocratie. C’est ce que je fais dans la seconde section où j’explique la légitimité démocratique. Je présente la démocratie comme une entreprise commune d’enquête, qui inclut à la fois des considérations épistémiques et pratiques, sur ce qui devrait être fait. Dans la troisième section, j’argumente que le problème de la corruption pour une justification procédurale de la démocratie est que la valeur épistémique de la procédure est amoindrie par le manque de considération d’agents corrompus pour la vérité. La corruption, selon ce cadre d’analyse, consiste en deux difformités de la vérité : le mensonge et la bullshit. Ces difformités cor-rompent du fait qu’elles dissimulent une recherche d’intérêts particuliers sous le couvert d’un intérêt pour une décision correcte. Dans la quatrième section, je discute des difficultés de l’approche procédurale à formuler des solutions au problème de la corruption.
Parties annexes
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