Bribery is operationally defined as “the offering, giving, receiving or soliciting of something of value for the purpose of influencing the action of an official in the discharge of his or her public or legal duties” (Lehman & Phelps, 2008). The practice of bribing generally stems from individuals who are ready to use illegitimate channels to capitalize on personal or corporate profit. However, there could be several other mitigating factors that drive people to partake in the act of bribery, which still ultimately lead to the same thing: profit. As a special advisor to Canada’s International Trade Minister, I will outline some of these extenuating factors to the Minister and advise him to turn a blind eye to the deeply rooted practice of
…show more content…
These instances would be ones in which a greater threat to society is posed. Bribery, in layman’s terms, is giving someone a payment for special consideration. The reason why bribery is outlawed and illegal is because it promotes chaos. Society is an establishment brought about from law and order, and on roles which each of us have to observe. Consequently, bribery is unequivocally divergent with the idea of a society. It is illegal for good reason as the ones bribing may be doing something wrong or dangerous and the ones accepting the bribe are then turning a blind eye to the matter. While the accepting party of the bribe may not absorb much of the risk, the rest of the members or society are then exposed to that same risk. One example of this would be a police officer accepting a bribe from a reckless driver to look the other way and not suspend his license. The police officer himself doesn’t absorb the greater risk that is delivered to the members of society, but gets all of the ill-gotten gains. This paves way for the driver to commit another offence, but one that proves lethal; an accident that could result in death. A more appropriate example is if one bribes a government official to get aids or sponsorships. The official himself receives all the bribe money, but he pays for the sponsorship with taxpayers’ money. He 's accumulating the wealth from the bribe, and distributing the cost to the taxpayers who trusted him with his
These instances would be ones in which a greater threat to society is posed. Bribery, in layman’s terms, is giving someone a payment for special consideration. The reason why bribery is outlawed and illegal is because it promotes chaos. Society is an establishment brought about from law and order, and on roles which each of us have to observe. Consequently, bribery is unequivocally divergent with the idea of a society. It is illegal for good reason as the ones bribing may be doing something wrong or dangerous and the ones accepting the bribe are then turning a blind eye to the matter. While the accepting party of the bribe may not absorb much of the risk, the rest of the members or society are then exposed to that same risk. One example of this would be a police officer accepting a bribe from a reckless driver to look the other way and not suspend his license. The police officer himself doesn’t absorb the greater risk that is delivered to the members of society, but gets all of the ill-gotten gains. This paves way for the driver to commit another offence, but one that proves lethal; an accident that could result in death. A more appropriate example is if one bribes a government official to get aids or sponsorships. The official himself receives all the bribe money, but he pays for the sponsorship with taxpayers’ money. He 's accumulating the wealth from the bribe, and distributing the cost to the taxpayers who trusted him with his