Xxxx and the Lobbyist Sample Clauses

Xxxx and the Lobbyist. Xxxx, like Xxx, is a good politician, with all the right scruples and attitudes. To have a viable chance of winning a morally significant election, she is asked to make an unseemly quid pro quo. An industry lobbyist approaches Xxxx and offers her considerable campaign finance support in exchange for her helping the industry to procure government contracts. On the face of it, this appears to have the same structure as the dilemma facing Xxx. A morally undesirable actor is offering a good person an immoral trade, yet this specific person should both take the trade and acknowledge the associated wrongdoing. Their election is substantially more important than preventing the trade. Unlike with Xxx’s case, however, what Xxxx is being offered is entirely legal and normalised under the rules of her political system. The lobbyist is not violating any law or widely agreed-upon professional code of ethics, nor is their act necessarily a secret one immune from public view. Xxxx advocates the reform of electoral rules to prohibit these trades. In contrast her opponents use this system with glee and without restraint. They do not care for the system’s immorality. The wrongfulness here is a procedural one, with the proper means for resolving such issues and settling democratic disputes being sidestepped or corrupted. The substantive morality, or lack thereof, of the industry in question is not a necessary condition for Xxxx to feel tormented. The substantive morality of supporting the industry is not the point. Much the same can be said about Xxx’s example. Like Xxx, Xxxx xxxxx that she might compromise her own character and contribute to broader corruption. Still, she takes the deal and promptly wins the election. Her hands are dirty but, following Xxxxxx, her supporters should welcome this. Though cases such as these are usually described in terms of how to acquire power, similar dilemmas to Xxx’s and Xxxx’s can arise in relation to the exercise of power too, calling upon lobbyists and obscure legislative tricks (for Xxxx) and corrupt extra-legal deals (for Xxx) to enact important legislation or defeat unjust proposals. Again, the wrongfulness here is in large part procedural.