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In 2021, the UK system for regulating the conduct of parliamentarians was briefly plunged into crisis. The government responded to a proposal to sanction one of its MPs – who had been found to have egregiously breached the Code of Conduct and accompanying rules - by threatening to change the whole system. This highly unusual interference by the executive branch, though withdrawn within 24 hours, violated the axiom that the executive should not have a say in disciplining members of the legislature because this might compromise parliament's ability to hold the government to account. Yet the ensuing debate has prompted calls to move the UK system yet further away from self-regulation and grant more powers of oversight to 'external' roles and bodies. This article draws on interviews with MPs to analyse whether this longstanding trajectory of reform is in line with how these "rule makers" perceive the system's flaws. It concludes that, over the years, MPs have to a large extent forfeited the right to regulate their own conduct by repeatedly shirking their responsibilities to regulate themselves effectively. Moreover, the constant focus on 'fixing' the procedures for investigating and sanctioning misconduct has crowded out a more constructive discussion about how to promote ethical behaviour.

Transparency in the extractives sector is widely seen as an important tool for improving accountability and deterring corruption. Yet for those very reasons, it is a puzzle that so many governments in corruption‐prone countries have voluntarily signed up to greater scrutiny in this area by joining the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI). We argue that EITI serves as a reputational intermediary, whereby reformers can signal good intentions and international actors can reward achievement. International and domestic actors thus utilize EITI to diffuse the norm of resource transparency and to advance reformist aims in a highly problematic policy area.

This article explores how realism in political theory can inform our understanding of political corruption. Whereas political moralists see corruption as a problem of implementation, which does not undermine their values, realists see corruption as posing a more fundamental problem, challenging the very nature of politics and undermining the attempt to establish and exercise authority in the ordering of conflict and the allocation of resources. Recent realist work has sought to characterize a discrete type of 'institutional' corruption, and to construct political corruption as the antithesis of good governance or impartiality. Other work has focused on the micro level, drawing on new insights from psychology and experimental economics to analyze individual decisions and motivations to behave corruptly. This article challenges scholars to build future research upon a richer understanding of the realities of political life that are intrinsic to both individual and institutional patterns of corruption. Adapted from the source document.

A comprehensive introduction to contemporary political ethicsWhat is the relationship between politics and morality? May politicians bend moral constraints in the name of political necessity? Is it always wrong for leaders to lie? How much political compromise is too much (or too little)? In Political Ethics, some of the world's leading thinkers in politics, philosophy, and related fields offer a comprehensive and accessible introduction to key issues in this rapidly growing area of political theory.In a series of original essays, the contributors examine a range of urgent political problems: lies and deception, compromise and refusal to compromise, the meaning and limits of political integrity, representation and failures of representation, good and bad democratic leadership, the virtues and excesses of partisanship, administrative ethics, political corruption, whistleblowing, legitimate and illegitimate claims of political emergency, and lobbying. What emerges are realistic but demanding ethical standards—and a clear-eyed understanding of the ethical challenges of political life in the twenty-first century.With contributions by Richard Bellamy, Alin Fumurescu, Edward Hall, Suzanne Dovi and Jesse McCain, Eric Beerbohm, Russell Muirhead and Nancy Rosenblum, Joseph Heath, Elizabeth David-Barrett and Mark Philp, Michele Bocchiola and Emanuela Ceva, Nomi Lazar, Phil Parvin, and Andrew Sabl