Political and Governmental Corruption Is a Feature, Not a Bug

by | Nov 4, 2016

Political and Governmental Corruption Is a Feature, Not a Bug

by | Nov 4, 2016

People do not oppose corruption in politics and government. They oppose only the corruption that does not steer loot and social domination to them. After all, the entire process of so-called democratic government is nothing but corruption writ large and backed by the threat of violent force.

Political partisans in particular are utterly unprincipled in regard to the corruption of the political process. If the Republicans are exposed as receiving unlawful campaign contributions or perpetrating political dirty tricks, the Democrats howl to high heaven, and vice versa. Of course, neither major party has a lock on corruption. In Washington, the state capitals, and the county and city councils, corruption is an equal-opportunity practice.

Indeed, it’s why the massive federal, state, and local governments exist in the first place. If governments confined themselves to protecting people’s natural rights, à la John Locke, they could operate with a tiny fraction of the money and personnel they now command.

Read the rest at The Beacon here.

Robert Higgs

Robert Higgs is Senior Fellow in Political Economy at the Independent Institute, author or editor of over fourteen Independent books, and Editor at Large of Independent’s quarterly journal The Independent Review.

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