Why is graft and corruption so common amongst so many governments? Who must be blamed?

Question

This results to overall decadence of any country, no matter how progresive-looking a certain country may look like.

Answer 1

The most often advanced position is that graft and corruption is inevitably linked to power and ego which certainly has deep historical roots.

Whether we wish to admit it or not, it is our own human nature which makes us all want to be better, to have more and to achieve, that's the way societies evolve. The need to be better is taught to all of us from early childhood, we begin our schooling by competing with others for the better grades, the more favored positions within the classroom or playground environments, we do the same within the family. Everyone has a desire to be better than the next person.

As all of us progress up the societal ladder, even in the worst of socioeconomic conditions, we begin to separate into leaders and followers. But no matter how high up we get, there seems always to be someone who is ahead of us as we position ourselves. There are, we soon learn, very few leaders and an endless supply of followers.

Most politicians probably begin their careers thinking that they know best how to solve the persistent problems which their countries experience, one must have a fairly high degree of ego.

So when you finally reach the seats of power, the need to retain that power will ultimately lead to using any device available to keep it, to remain relevant, to remain on top. And that is when graft and corruption begins.

How do we change it? It seems to me that human nature is here to stay and we cannot change what we are and history has proven that our destiny will be what it always has been.

Answer 2

I think also populations don't understand that the state is their property and so they don't pay attention to what's done with it. This creates the perfect environment for unethical individuals who, as someone mentioned before, may have simply been corrupted by power.

I think if the people under a government unit is alert and involved, reading about what their governors are doing, investigating when they see something fishy, and asking for acountability, a lot of the corruption could be avoidable.

Answer 3

These problems are inevitable when a government has too much power. There is simply no way to discourage people outside the system from wanting to buy influence over that power, and there's no way to effectively control the people with that excess power to prevent its sale.

As Shakespeare once wrote, "The fault lies not with our stars, but with ourselves." We as a people demand that the government do things such as preventing smoking in public, forcing people to wear seatbelts and motorcycle helmets, gather enough money to feed and house the poor, control prices of gasoline and sugar, insure us from floods and hurricanes, and lately to prevent Global Warming. All of these things involve increasing government's power.

It comes as no surprise to those with foresight that power will be traded in the marketplace like so much corn.

Answer 4

Ego is to blamed on 90% of the problems with government corruption. It leads to power which leads to more corruption.

Answer 5

It is the fault of the electorate. They didn't choose wisely and voted in leaders that hired civil servants, who hired people like themselves.
Whenever and whereever there is an abundance of money to be spent , there are sticky fingers with big pockets lurcking around. Witnes: Canada's Sponcership Scandle.

Answer 6

Human nature. Those in power always seem to believe that they are somehow superior to those governed.

Answer 7

when a government becomes to centralized and rests in the hands of a few they get greedy

Answer 8

Money and power goes to politicians heads.

Answer 9

The simple answer is:

POWER CORRUPTS