From time to time, public life is dominated by media storms concerning integrity. The conduct of elected political leaders has led many to denounce the decline in standards and the lack of integrity in public life. But what is integrity, and where does our interest in it in public life come from?In this book, Martin Albrow argues that integrity was a key element in the rise of the West, and a key feature that distinguished it from other civilizations. Albrow traces the concept of integrity to its roots in ancient Greece and Rome, where integrity acquired its own meaning.
The unique feature of anything that possesses integrity is that it combines its perfection and completeness with the embodiment of external standards. Integrity is unity through values. The author then traces the history of integrity through early Christianity and the Renaissance to the present day.Today, we find ourselves in a paradoxical situation where a lack of integrity in public life is widely condemned, and at the same time, politicians can remain popular without even pretending to act with integrity: this is the new politics of the integrity vacuum.The idea of integrity may be quintessentially Western, but like many aspects of Western culture, it has now become a feature of global society. Albro concludes by saying that integrity can gain even greater value today if combined with non-Western wisdom, in our quest to create a system in which honesty, trust, and reliability in our relationships with others are paramount.
