[March 28, 2014] Two more senior-level politicians were in the news yesterday for corruption and other crimes: a state senator and a big city mayor. While there are many levels of corruption, those who have the public’s trust are the most egregious violators because they destroy the relationship between people and their leadership
A book definition says that political corruption is the abuse of public power, office, or resources for personal gain. But simply, it’s the lack of commonsense honesty. The California senator offered to connect an undercover agent with an international arms trafficker in exchange for campaign donations1. The North Carolina big city major resigned after being charged with public corruption and taking bribes to improperly use his official position2. Wikipedia has a comprehensive list of recent arrests and charges (see link). It seems like political corruption is a common affair.
Corrupt politicians make the other ten percent look bad.” ― Henry Kissinger
Political corruption is most commonly found with authoritarian or dictatorial governments but also in those without adequate policing of corruption. Countries and organizations that divide power internally to provide independent services are less prone to corruption due to their independence. This is how the United States is structured with the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of government.
Yet, how can it be that the United States that has both strong laws against corruption, serious penalties, and a culture that abhors corruption also have so many people caught in the act? The explanation, I believe is twofold. First, there are tremendous incentives to gain power and money. Second, our culture is no longer morally tough against corruption; some even arguing today that we are forgiving of corruption.
One of the major characteristics of a leader is their ability to build trust and confidence in their followers. Corruption breaks this bond and not only severs the link but builds cultural obstacles to future trust. We have already seen the lack of trust in the U.S. Congress with their approval rating hovering at the lower end of 10 to 20% for at least the past few years. And, the corruption is certainly not limited to small time political figures.
Leadership requires doing the right thing morality and setting the conditions for others to follow. Moral standards have been “evolving” for politicians and until they are clear that morals do not evolve, corruption will continue along its current path of sucking in more of them. As citizens, we need to be far less tolerant of all corruption.
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