Corruption and Politics

 

Corruption and Politics

Peter Schultz

 

                  There is a misconception about what many call “corruption,” i.e., the very common phenomenon where politicians and officials appoint their family and friends to government posts despite the fact that the appointees are not qualified for the posts. The misconception is that this kind of duplicity is not a political act. These appointments are seen as self-serving rather than as actions with and undertaken for political reasons.

 

                  However, like other forms of duplicity, such appointments are political in that they serve to maintain and fortify the status quo. As a result, even though exposed such appointments continue. The political benefits ensure that. This duplicity, like other forms of duplicity, plays an essential role in maintaining the fortifying the established order.

 

                  Think of it in light of the question, why do businesses so often hire those they know as family and friends even though the hires lack the qualifications to do the job. Obviously, it is thought that such hires do more to fortify the business than undermine it, regardless of the hire’s competence or lack of competence. The variable that is often overlooked in assessing such behavior is loyalty. Loyalty very often trumps competence in preserving and fortifying organizations. And duplicitous hires are in the service of loyalty., which is a “two-way street.”

 

                  In the political arena, loyalty is even more fundamental that it is in the “private” sector. Incompetence – think here of the response to the events of 9/11 – rarely undermines politicians, whereas disloyalty very often does. What brought Richard Nixon down if not disloyalty? And whatever incompetence Nixon displayed would not have brought him down had he not been betrayed by colleagues like John Dean, Alexander Haig, James McCord, or “Deep Throat.”

 

                  So, the “corruption” of allegedly self-serving, nepotistic behavior is not corruption at all in the sense of behavior that undermines the existing or established political arrangements. Ironically, such “corruption,” even when exposed, continues to serve the status quo and the careers of those politicians and others overseeing the status quo. Such “corruption” is, in fact, essential to any existing or established political order and, so, will be practiced faithfully despite threat of exposure. The political arena, it seems, is ineradicably corrupt. And, as a result, “public service,” so highly touted by many, is corrupting. So it goes.