Why does corruption and abuse of power exist?

Question

Even in America, politicians high in the goverment are corrupt and either take bribes or thing such as campaign contributions that are close to being bribes and in return pass laws that are to their benifift and at the exspense of everyone else. Why does this happen and how could this be prevented?

Answer 1

because that is the system that exist...even good policiticians are transformed to be corrupt, because if they don't, they'll be kicked out of the system, and they don't want it to happen.

Answer 2

Greed!
To take corruption out of politics, every tax payer should contribute 5 dollars at tax time. The money will go into an election fund. Which will be distributed amongst the candidates. The money will be the only thing they can use to campaign! No funds from anywhere else allowed.
This will prevent any favors from being owed. Any government official who is found convicted taking bribes ,etc. Should automatically lose their position, pension, and ability to ever run again in any public capacity! The government official caught in corrupt acts need to go through a normal trail. Not congress. But by Americans who have been footing his/her income.
Once convicted of such crimes NOBODY can reinstated their pension, power to run, etc.
As long as private companies are funding the parties then corruption will exist.

Answer 3

Election campaign finance MUST be reformed in the US. If it is not, our "elected" leaders will always be indebted to the corporations who finance their campaigns, or we will only be able to elect super rich people who wouldnt take corporate money for their campaign. Neither of these groups of people have any interest in the well being of the "little guy".

In the American Revolutionary War, the US went to war with Britian for Independence, but the root cause of US dissatisfaction with King George was a hard-to-pronounce but extremely vital reason: "Taxation Without Representation".
England was taxing EVERYTHING in the US and the colonies had no representation in the English Parliament, looking out for their interests. So the colonies revolted.

Do we not have the same thing today? The little guy has NO representation in the US government. The only time our current President even THINKS about the little guy is when he's trying to get him to join the military to fight for oil.

"The defense policy of the United States is based on a simple premise: The United States does not start fights. We will never be an aggressor. We maintain our strength in order to deter and defend against aggression -- to preserve freedom and peace."

Do you know whose quote that is? Ronald Reagan said that in a televised speech on March 23, 1983.

The Republicans sure have come a long way.

Answer 4

There was a study done in the sixties (there have been several such studies) - classmates/friends were split into 2 groups a)inmates and b)prison guards. The behavior of both groups changed to reflect to power and control associated with each group. The "guards" abused the inmates, arbitrarily took away rights etc.

Power is like a narcotic. It is mind numbing. Politicians are human beings first. They are susceptible to the positive influences of power as well as the negative influences.

Great question - big problem.

Answer 5

http://news.bbc.co.uk/
http://joshuakane.diaryland.com/older.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corruption
http://www.ex.ac.uk/~RDavies/arian/scandals/political.html

Are there any solutions to this problem of political corruption? Simply put, no. The corruptions we are forced to deal with are a trade-off of the system of government that we enjoy. Nothing can be proposed that would eliminate all the problems in our government. We must find the best trade-off we can get. That is what we have, as unfortunate as that is.

The sad fact of human nature is that any one of us could find ourselves in the same situation as a politician? "Every man has a price," or so they say. It is important to realize that not one of us is perfect. Perhaps the only reason we find the concept of bribery abhorrent is that we have not yet been offered one. This does not excuse the behavior of global politicians, corporate business etc etc.

Answer 6

Corporate America owns the government, so quite buying from WalMart and start buying from Mom & pop store, oh sorry you can't, big business made them go under.

Answer 7

Something I've always said would be to term limit our elected officials. Corruption happens alot the longer you are in Washington DC.

Answer 8

Because the only reason for living for some people are power and greed.Everyone alive knows someone like this.

Answer 9

It exists because humans exist. To stop it we could have a government of robots but I can see many problems with that scenario.

Answer 10

The American people allow it to happen

Americans? = Chickens & cows on a religious farm