"Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men." (Lord Acton)
We all like to
think of ourselves as kind, honest, and benevolent. In our hearts, we are
convinced that should we ever attain personal power, whether through building
our own business, rising to the corporate executive office, becoming
extraordinarily influential in our area of expertise, or in winning public
office, we will continue to be honest and ethical, incorruptible to the end.
The action of wielding
power varies greatly with the individual involved and the extent of power
obtained. We are all familiar with the petty tyrant at work who rules a tiny
business empire with greed and self-indulgence, bullying underlings without any
sense of fairness or mercy. We have seen the research scientists who have
forged a reputation over a lifetime fall into disgrace through subverting
results to support their theories and their sponsors.
As the extent of
power increases, we see the Enron and Lincoln Savings brand of tableaux unfold.
Not only does that same greed and self-indulgence hold sway, but the concept of
being above the law arises and accountability and trust are jettisoned from the
boardroom. The more esoteric the lifestyle becomes, the greater the disconnect
between the powerful and the rest of the world. Those who lack power are to be
cheated, manipulated, and drained of their possessions – surely only just
desserts for their failure to rise to the top.
In a world where
hereditary monarchies are an anachronism, the most absolute power lies in the
political sphere whether wielded by a military-backed dictator or by those who
have been so repeatedly elected to office that they no longer see themselves as
public representatives but as entitled oligarchs of a system they control.
The presumptuous
ambition of one man, Julius Caesar, led to the destruction of a republic that
had guided Rome to the heights of civilization. The empire he created held the
seeds of its own destruction in its descent into the unrestrained autocracies
of a string of less than illustrious rulers who wielded their absolute power
with caprice and personal whim.
The framers of the
Constitution had a vision of a government where no such unconstrained power
could arise because of the checks and balances inherent in the system they
devised. No one could be above the law because the rule of law was paramount.
The advice and consent required from different branches of government ensured
that a multitude of voices and philosophical ideas were involved in any major
decision.
But those who drove
the development of our constitutional law were giants in their own right.
Washington’s refusal to accept the title of king, advocated by several of his
supporters, signalled his rejection of too much power concentrated in one
individual. His peers – Jefferson, Adams, Franklin, Madison, and many more –
followed the same course: divide power to ensure that the needs of the many can
be met through a myriad of representative voices.
Over the centuries,
the checks and balances they built have kept the ship of state afloat.
Occasionally listing to port or starboard, the sheer multiplicity of
participants in the political process have been repetitively able to pull it
back to an upright middle course. Certainly, there have been many dark periods
of corruption and incompetence. We face such a darkness now: individuals in
office for too long, with too much power within their grasping fingers; too
many officials who have forgotten that they are public servants, developing a
mindset of entitlement and the conviction that they know, better than anyone
else, what is good for the public who, after all, elected them.
Only the rule of
law, so carefully crafted more than 200 years ago, can keep them in check. The
lawful prosecution of a congressman accepting millions of dollars in bribes, of
a congressional leader who used election money as he saw fit rather than as the
law required, and administration officials who destroyed a woman’s career and
jeopardized the lives of covert operatives all over the world, restores balance
in a world rife with corruption, greed, and overweening pride.
Ongoing
investigations into the honesty of leaders in evoking the need for military
intervention and the rising voice of dissent against financial favours for the
rich and powerful at the cost of cutting services to the powerless poor, offer
a glimmer of hope that the corruption will be curbed and the hubris of our
leaders punctured and exposed.
The embattled
defendants cry foul, claiming that the only transgression is the political
ambition of their critics. They have moved so far beyond the pale of the common
citizen that their own corruption and misdeeds seem entirely ordinary and
acceptable to them.
Happily, unlike the
impotent rubber-stamp Roman senators, we can face our would-be Caesars without
threat of bodily harm and we can cast them out of their cosy nest with the most
powerful weapon ever devised: the ballot box.
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