Power Corrupts

Power can be taken in the sense of the right and the authority of a person or a group to do the something. Corruption means dishonest or illegal behaviour especially of the people in authority. It may happen with a person that a power given to him corrupts him if he starts misusing his authority for his personal monetary gain or to have some advantage in other form.

Poets, politicians and philosophers have reminded us the dangers of excessive power. Shelley, a famous poet has once said "Power, like a desolating pestilence, pollutes what'er it touches." Unlimited power is apt to corrupt the minds of those who possess it. "Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely", the statement in today's world has become proverbial. Generally, we see those who have powers are liable to sin more.

A form of corruption is taking bribe. Bribe taking is often justified as a necessity for the survival of the underpaid state employees, who will understandably do whatever is needed to make ends meet themselves and their families. The low level corruption hurts poor more than it hurts the rich (paying Rs. 200 to renew a driving license is nothing for many people, but represents 5-10% of monthly discretionary income for others). The small bribes necessary to open doors in the government offices in an emerging economy mean that these doors remain close for the very people most in need of public services.

Official corruption weakens the two sectors that are almost crucial to social and economical advancement: public and the private sector. It weakens the government by making officials at all levels more focused o pleasing their benefactors than on doing a good job. It weakens the private sector by distorting the competitive arena, helping uncompetitive companies succeed through bribes rather through good business.

It is no coincidence that the world's least corrupt economies are the also home to the world's most competitive business , and vice versa. Businessman of the companies of these countries were found to give bribe to officials in developing countries, e.g. Italy and France in several countries of Africa.

It is also conceivable that corruption can make doing things easier, at least in the short term. Since 2001, Egypt has crashed from number 54 to number 105 in the Corruption Perception Index, moving from middle of the pact to miserable territory. At the same time,World Bank has lauded it as the world's best reformer for the ease of doing business foreign direct investment has boomed and the CASE has become the best performing stock in the world.

An unfortunate reality of the world is that often, the best places to do business are repressive and corrupt authoritarian states. Most of the world's current superstar emerging markets - like China, Russia, Thailand, the MENA region - are known internationally for their powerful central governments, flexible attitudes towards the enforcement of labour and environmental laws and billionaire politicians.

Perhaps the most difficult thing about the power and corruption is that like most of the world's evils, it exists somewhere deep inside of all of us, in different levels of dormancy. Dangle a free meal in front of most of the people, and it's likely they will gobble it up varying degrees of enthusiasm - it just depends hungry they are. Finally, corruption exists in all of us - extreme cases place entire nation i danger. Power should know its limitations when and how much to be used otherwise it becomes uncontrolled and tyrannical alongside getting corrupted.



Refrence:
http://www.businesstodayegypt.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=7731