The above is the title of the latest missive from Larry Sabato’s Crystal Ball. From the introduction (emphasis mine):
Who is to blame for acts of corruption? The guilty officials, of course, are the people we must hold culpable. Yet, the citizenry also bears its share of the rap once a culture of corruption develops because they have tolerated it. The public shouldn’t accept corruption under any guise–the people possess the means to turn dirty pols out of office and they have a responsibility to do so.
The article includes an excerpt from Dirty Little Secrets, a book written by Sabato and Glenn Simpson. In it, the “Principles of Corruption” are discussed. These “principles” are:
- Corruption has no ideology, no partisan coloration
- While corruption is inevitable and a constant, its precise manifestations are ever changing.
- Corruption flourishes in secrecy and wherever the people and the press tolerate it.
- A system of government or politics can be at least as corrupting as human nature itself
- Any crusade to eradicate corruption is naive and doomed to failure, but corruption can be controlled and limited.
Head on over and read the whole thing.
But we can surely understand the problems Illinois voters face.
Perhaps they voted for Blagojevich because he promised to reform government after Ryan.
It ain’t so simple when even the reformers turn out to be crooks.
Posted by LittleDavid | Thursday, December 11, 2008, 10:04 amThe reason government becomes corrupt is because it has favors it can bestow.
The less power government is given, and the smaller its share of the GPD, the fewer and smaller the favors it has available for sale, and the less incentive there is for public officials to be corrupt, or for private interests to seek to corrupt them.
Think about it, in a Libertarian country, would it even be worth the effort to offer a bribe to an official who basically only has the power to protect your rights and no more?
Posted by Don Tabor | Thursday, December 11, 2008, 1:49 pmVivian, your link is busted.
Posted by Genevieve | Thursday, December 11, 2008, 2:21 pmFixed. Thanks!
Posted by vjp | Thursday, December 11, 2008, 2:39 pmIt would totally be worth it, Donald. I can bribe him not to protect yours.
Blaming the system always strikes me as a cop-out because it ignores the foundational problem: that we’re all human, and we are all, to some degree, flawed. Abuse of authority to the point of mass attrocities have taken placce in theocracies as well as monarchies, dictatorships as well as republics, Communist nations as well as Fascist nations. No political ideology is a panacea for this sort of problem; all you can do is confront and repudiate corruption when it’s exposed.
The origin of the problem lies within each of us, but so does the solution. Sunlight really is the best disinfectant.
Posted by silence dogood | Thursday, December 11, 2008, 2:46 pmPanacea? Of course not.
But the principle that the more favors government has to dispense, the more incentive there is for corruption still holds true.
This is particularly true when the powers of government become concentrated in the executive function, for the very reason you suggest, there is more sunlight in the legislature than in the executive.
Posted by Don Tabor | Thursday, December 11, 2008, 3:15 pmDon Tabor,
I am not buying your argument.
At least when government holds some power I am allowed to vote for those in power.
Just because some politicians turn out to be corrupt does not mean the system is wrong. In fact the identification of, and holding accountable of, these politicians stands in argument itself that our current system works.
Posted by LittleDavid | Friday, December 12, 2008, 8:24 amSpeaking of corruption and abuse of power, there is a local example that has me annoyed this week.
Watch out when driving in VA Beach.
http://tinyurl.com/6xn693
Posted by Don Tabor | Friday, December 12, 2008, 9:56 amDon Tabor,
Yeah, that kind of sh!t bothers me.
Especially being a truck driver who travels well above one hundred thousand miles per year.
For the average driver this only involves an increase in insurance rates. For the truck driver this involves his livelihood.
Posted by LittleDavid | Friday, December 12, 2008, 10:24 am