One corollary question that would arise in implementing our proposals for a supranational World Authority which deserves special attention is the danger of the absolute powers of that Authority (in its defined area of policy competences) becoming a source of absolute corruption (as in Acton’s famous dictum).We are speaking here of the dangers of political corruption, of “the abuse of entrusted public office for private gain” (Kurer, Routledge handbook of political corruption. Routledge, 2015), and a first point to make is that such corruption is already rampant in many nation states including in representative democracies and so is not a problem specific to the World Authority. Nonetheless, because of the distance and aloofness of such an Authority from most people’s everyday lives, securing its legitimacy against corrosive populist cynicism makes it all the more important that the World Authority should be manifestly free from corruption and publicly accountable and transparent in this respect. Some detailed suggestions are made as to how exactly this can be achieved drawing in part on the remarkable achievements of Singapore in virtually eliminating corruption. A carrot and stick approach is proposed with severe and enforced penalties for corrupt actions both for corrupter and corrupted, while at the same time having handsome salary and benefits packages for World Authority public servants comparable with those of the private sector. At the same time beyond a certain age or points in their careers, a strict separation of careers between public servants and private business people could be applied to mitigate state capture. Lobbying of all kinds whether at local or at supranational level, we also identify as a form of corruption (seeking to divert public policy from pursuit of the common good to private gain for the interest groups lobbying), and we argue that this too needs to be very strictly regulated and rendered transparent and open to all irrespective of their financial means.

错误:搜索内容不能为空,请输入英文关键词
错误:关键词超出字数限制,请精简
高级检索

Avoiding the Dangers of Corruption of Absolute Power

  • Patrick O’Sullivan,
  • Paolo Ricci,
  • Ola Ngau

摘要

One corollary question that would arise in implementing our proposals for a supranational World Authority which deserves special attention is the danger of the absolute powers of that Authority (in its defined area of policy competences) becoming a source of absolute corruption (as in Acton’s famous dictum).We are speaking here of the dangers of political corruption, of “the abuse of entrusted public office for private gain” (Kurer, Routledge handbook of political corruption. Routledge, 2015), and a first point to make is that such corruption is already rampant in many nation states including in representative democracies and so is not a problem specific to the World Authority. Nonetheless, because of the distance and aloofness of such an Authority from most people’s everyday lives, securing its legitimacy against corrosive populist cynicism makes it all the more important that the World Authority should be manifestly free from corruption and publicly accountable and transparent in this respect. Some detailed suggestions are made as to how exactly this can be achieved drawing in part on the remarkable achievements of Singapore in virtually eliminating corruption. A carrot and stick approach is proposed with severe and enforced penalties for corrupt actions both for corrupter and corrupted, while at the same time having handsome salary and benefits packages for World Authority public servants comparable with those of the private sector. At the same time beyond a certain age or points in their careers, a strict separation of careers between public servants and private business people could be applied to mitigate state capture. Lobbying of all kinds whether at local or at supranational level, we also identify as a form of corruption (seeking to divert public policy from pursuit of the common good to private gain for the interest groups lobbying), and we argue that this too needs to be very strictly regulated and rendered transparent and open to all irrespective of their financial means.