Ethics Without Agents Corruption, Financial Crime, and the Interpassive ‘Ethics’ of Compliance

Whenever a political or financial scandal emerges, it seems to confirm the widespread sentiment that what we are most lacking in our major political, economic, and cultural institutions are individuals and organisations who exhibit genuine virtue, integrity and a deep fidelity to the larger social and moral purpose of their particular profession, office, or social practice. We seem to yearn for the return of such figures. Yet today, the compliance regimes that are employed to combat corruption, fraud, money laundering, and other crimes seem to be increasingly techno-bureaucratic in nature, lacking in meaningful moral content, and disinterested in and incapable of cultivating a genuine moral culture. This chapter investigates why this is the case, but it does so by suggesting that compliance regimes are actually a reflection of, rather than a departure from, our dominant moral and cultural conception of ethics.