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WalkerNewellThirdPaper 6 - 07 Jul 2009 - Main.WalkerNewell
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After reading Daniel Margolskee's first paper a week ago, I realized that my third paper covers almost the exact same ground. Therefore, I've written a new one to replace it, on a totally different topic. | | | There are a few potential answers to this question. The most obvious is that bribery is illegal and especially hypocritical if employed as a strategy by an organization seeking to maintain the moral high ground. An argument could also be made that, even if an organization was willing to take this tenuous step, their donors would never support these tactics. But while these contentions have some merit, they don’t refute the fact that offering legal financial support or illegal bribes to politicians is an effective way to foment change. Non-profits in the US, such as the ACLU, are barred as corporations from making campaign contributions. The influence that powerful organizations can wield over governments is well known. | |
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< | These problems with my proposed strategy raise broader questions. Is it possible to do the wrong thing for the right reason? Certainly, unless one believes that there are no shades of gray between the blacks and whites of this world. Would the negative externalities caused by buying politicians outweigh the benefits of increased protections of human rights? Possibly, but governments influence the politics and laws of foreign countries all the time and let the dust settle wherever it chooses. Perhaps international human rights organizations have a moral duty to stay aloof from these unsavory practices. Or perhaps they should see their duty differently. Maybe the individuals responsible for setting the policies of these organizations should be obliged to spend their donors’ money in the most effective way possible. When I’ve proposed this idea to individuals in the field of human rights, they’ve dismissed it as preposterous, but I doubt that the head of company seeking to influence a government would view the strategy so dismissively. | >
> | These problems with my proposed strategy raise broader questions. Is it possible to do the wrong thing for the right reason? Certainly, unless one believes that there are no shades of gray between the blacks and whites of this world. Would the negative externalities caused by buying politicians outweigh the benefits of increased protections of human rights? Possibly, but governments influence the politics and laws of foreign countries all the time and let the dust settle wherever it chooses. Perhaps international human rights organizations have a moral duty to stay aloof from these unsavory practices. Or perhaps they should see their duty differently. Maybe the individuals responsible for setting the policies of these organizations should be obliged to spend their donors’ money in the most effective way possible. When I’ve proposed this idea to individuals in the field of human rights, they’ve dismissed it as preposterous. But I doubt that the head of a corporation seeking to influence a government would disregard the strategy. | | |
Response from another perspective |
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