Political Corruption In The US

The Simpsons writers in the television show, “Two Cars in Every Garage and Three Eyes on Every Fish”, explains that there is corruption for those in power and it can be easy for those in power to become corrupt.

“Corruption, improper and usually unlawful conduct intended to secure a benefit for oneself or another its forms include bribery, extortion, and the misuse of inside information. It exists where there is community indifference or a lack of enforcement policies.”(Encyclopedia Britannica). Today political Corruption in all forms exists in every country in the world. In some countries it is more prominent then in others, but no matter where you go it still occurs. Recently in mid 2013 some political corruption was brought to light in New York. “Since 2007, state senators have been more likely to be arrested then to lose their seats in a general election,” (New York Public Interest Research group). In April of 2013 New York State

In the case of money, it is corruption. Some would argue that money is the root of all problems, and that there is no instance where money doesn’t cause corruption. This threat is constant in the media today: the election, the celebrities, the news. These and many more are considered corrupted by a source of great wealth, being that the cantaditas pay for votes, the celebrities are paid for their acting in the media, and the news stations are paid by different political parties to represent them in broadcasts. Sadly, as this does occur, many people are represented for their money and not for their talent due to the overvaluing of money in America. It is most definitely true that corruption does occur as a result of money, but not to a complete extent. While these instances do occur in today’s world, there is reform in action as well as the fact that not all Americans are led towards this path of deception. It is true that many people are drawn towards money when it comes to picking a leader or immersing oneself in the media, there are many cases of Americans going towards those who exemplify ideals similar to their own over those who have larger supplies of wealth. This paves the way to the realization that not all Americans overvalue

“All contributions by corporations to any political committee or for any political purpose should be forbidden by law” This quote from Theodore Roosevelt illustrates how corporate money can be disastrous when involved in election cycles. Unfortunately, this is not the case. The Supreme Court decided in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission that companies and Super PAC’s could donate unlimited amount of money to support candidates. The Citizens United ruling has caused increased political corruption in the United States by giving candidates the money they need to win an election while changing policies that would be beneficial to the company.

One of the issues I am most passionate about is that of money in American politics. Increasing campaign costs, coupled with a decrease in the number of donors contributing to those campaigns, is a disturbing trend which has caused many to feel the need to question the state of our democracy—myself included. The problem of mainstream political corruption and legalized bribery is one that I was made aware of three years ago, and has since become one of the things keeping me up at night most often.

Corruption has no place in our government, period. The American people have a right to hold their elected officials to high ethical standards, and when their elected officials fail to meet such standards, the people have a responsibility to hold them accountable. In addition to standing for election every two years, Congress has ethics committee procedures it can utilize to censure or otherwise reprimand members who violate the rules. Members of Congress have to abide by the same laws as everyone else, and when laws are broken, they should be held accountable.

All the while there is corruption caused within industrial society by the corporate dominance of politics, those are the people that were left to suffer the harsh treatment of chasing after wealth. Winners and losers were prevalent within the economy, society as well as politics in America as a result of The Gilded Age.

Corruption can come from many different people. When the same group of people are always in government it becomes a situation where this group of people runs government. And when someone wants to be elected they might do whatever the group of people wants to be in there favor. The Federalist paper number 68 it says “He might otherwise be tempted to sacrifice his duty to his complaisance for those whose favor was necessarily to the duration of his official consequence” (Hamilton). There are also people from foreign countries that want to be the leader of America just for the benefit of their home country. They

Corruption is when the Government is bribed by interest groups or corporations so that the bribers’ interests are put forward before the interest of the people. During the Gilded Age corruption in the senate was rampant. According to the political cartoon “The bosses of Senate”- (Progress and Poverty, 324), the corporations were the real entities behind running the Senate. The Senate, as the cartoon shows, is acting only in the interests of the different monopolies that are bribing the senate. However, this does not neccesarily mean that the Government cannot act in the intersts of its own people.

In the American version of a democratic system, a handful of extremely wealthy individuals and large corporations control the political system. By "funding" or bribing the candidates, they directly influence the election and nominations of presidents, governors, senators and congress members. The money is used for campaign staff, door to door voting operations, and television advertising. The continued influence of the wealthy violates the basic principle of democratic political equality.This cynical political campaign has become part of the democratic system that the politicians are not even required to justify their action. Even though a truly democratic system is too perfect to exist, a corrupted political system destroys the hope for a system that has the public's interest in mind.

Living in America people learn to live amongst some of the most corrupt human-being known to humankind. Anyone can be corrupt, weather he or she is a corrupt cook working for Burger King stealing money from the cash register to pay bills, or a corrupt politician who votes to raise his or her earnings while committing white-collar crimes against the American public. Theodore Roosevelt could not have been more precise when he said, “When they call the roll in the Senate, the Senators do not know whether to answer ‘present’ or ‘Not Guilty’.” Corruption has been around for some time in America, and the government has struggled to void this type of behavior when it comes to politicians. The government’s use of the FBI for investigations, the media

It is the norm and not the exception. Therefore as with any epidemic, the cure must be systemic instead of localized. First, the source of infection must be eradicated from the entire Congress. In Brazil’s case, the infection seems to come from the parasitic relationship between politician and corporation: To prevent this relationship from occurring, Brazil must use taxes as the the only capital to fund political campaigns; corporate executives who engage in “organized crime would … [not] finance politicians”(“Brazil election”). Candidates for political office would have a set budget, and the chance of catching those who would bribe or be bribed would be much higher, thus eradicating one of the major reasons for corruption. Additionally, the government must be held more accountable for its corrupt members. Specifically, Brazil must get rid of its privilege law. This law protects government officials by allowing trials to take place only in the Supreme Court, which hears more than 100,000 cases annually. Because the Supreme Court is so backlogged, legislators have “near impunity… about 22,000 people enjoy this privilege” (Winter) Repealing this law would allow lower courts to hear these cases, benefiting the public by bringing corrupt officials to justice quickly and making it easier to change the government culture by punishing wrongdoers. Finally, as with any bribery, money laundering, or graft scheme, capital is

One of the largest issues that democracy in Latin America faces is bribery. This however is not entirely the fault of the corrupt politician trying to stay in power. Voters are also to blame for accepting these bribes. By accepting the

In our country currently, corruption is a topic highly discussed among the people of America. People believe that corruption costed them, the most recent Presidential election. Some say corruption in our government caused them to go out make their voices heard by voting for someone who preached of cleaning up Washington, D.C.. But across the Atlantic Ocean there are problems of their own evolving rapidly, more specifically in Italy. Is the reason Italy’s so corrupt, do to the fact wealthy people will do to all their best to effect outcome? History has showed us that corruption can run rabbid through the world, take a look at Africa. Millions of dollar and supplies are shipped there, but are lucky if they reach their intended targets

Rothstein says, “a corrupt government is the worst social ill of all.” A corrupt government leads to the citizens losing trust in each other and the government. Trust has been described by Rothstein as a linchpin to a functioning society. Therefore, individuals who believe the government is corrupt don’t trust in it. Many argue the rich have excluded the middle and lower class from politics can be a plague to society by itself. Mark Warren describes corruption as “duplicitous and harmful exclusion of those who have a claim to inclusion in collective decisions and actions.” Under this logic, the belief that the rich are more entitled to politics than lower classes is a form of corruption. Another reason the government might be seen as corrupt is the amount it has expanded. The government has its hands on almost everything due to the Supreme Court’s interpretation of the Interstate Commerce Clause. This is not necessary a bad thing especially considering it’s the reason the government has the power to tell hotels and restraints they can’t exclude minorities for the reason of being a minority. However, this expands the government which requires more people. The bureaucracy, in particular, allows more power to street-level bureaucrats. Corruption finds its way to these street-level bureaucrats because the media is watching the big dogs. Government employees such as drug testers can make people feel uncomfortable or ashamed which lowers trust. Favoritism, bribery, and rudeness