Power Corrupts
by Paul Hazelden

Contents

Introduction

Experience suggests that Lord Acton was right. "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." (1)

People with power may start off with good intentions, wanting to use their powers for the good of others, but usually they end up using it for their own benefit. The more power people have, the more pronounced is this tendency.

But we cannot avoid power. So we need to understand how and why power tends to corrupt, so we can do our best to avoid this danger.

Details

  The process of corruption

Power tends to corrupt

I seek to do good things.

The things I do are for the greater good.

Sometimes you have to balance the good which is done against the occasional harm which is needed to achieve that good.

The harm I do is all for the greater good, and is therefore justified.

anything which harms or distracts me harms the organisation or nation

  Paranoia

power tends to produce paranoia

I am identified with the organisation

disloyalty is treason

I need to know who can be trusted, so I need to know things they don't know I know

It's all for the greater good.

It takes a brave person to disagree with the person in power.

  Intention

Good intentions do not protect you from the corruption caused by power.

• Good people do bad things for good reasons.
• Power brings responsibility and obligations.
• The person with power has an obligation to achieve certain things for the sake of the organisation and its goals, and these things are seen as being good because they are good for the organisation.
• If you care about the organisation, you want to support it, which sometimes means you have to do bad things for the greater good.
• The more you do bad things, the more you become used to doing bad things and the more you become a bad person.

  Structure

The fact of someone having power tends to produce corruption within the organisation.

• Power always exists within a system and a structure.
• The person with power has an obligation to concentrate on the big and important issues.
• Everybody wants the person with power to know about the small details which matter to them.
• The system must limit what is communicated to the person with power, so they are not overwhelmed and distracted by it.
• Power always isolates and insulates the person with power from the consequences of their decisions.
• The person with power does not see the people who are harmed by their decisions.
• The organisation does harm which cannot be acknowledged.

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