Contradictions of Ethics in Politics: Perspectives of Corporate and Personal Ethics

Abstract

This paper attempts to examine the interwoven contradictions of ethics in politics from corporate and personal ethics. The application of political play often leaves many in the fields of governance, public policy, and by large International Relations in dilemma. Many utter; “Politics ought to be ethical yet in many instances it depicts contradictions”. Whether the statement uttered has truth or not is questionable and answerable to the extent of epistemological dimensions through a microscopic scholarly view herein undertaken. This paper anchors itself on a qualitative approach by opening written thoughts of selected philosophers for readers and practitioners (business and political) to make informed perspectives of ethics. Based on generalizations; this paper argues on key themes relevant to the topic, finding role of ethics in societal ecology, then narrowing down to ethical theories and their applications to personal and business ethics and whether contradictions exist in politics. This discussion concludes that there exist positive and negative contradictions of ethics in politics. Contradictions of ethics in politics are majorly construed to; it’s being relativity concept, being application based, and its epistemological dimensions. Similarly, its contradiction emanates from immoral citizenry – the breeding ground of political elite thus the output of unethical practice in politics.