Relationship Between Power And Corruption

Register to read the introduction… Adam Galinsky, a psychologist at Northwestern University conducted a series of experiments to find whether powerful individual give importance to others or not. As part of the experiment, Galinsky asked the participants to write letter ‘E’ on their forehead. The results of the experiment showed that participant who were primed with the feeling of power wrote ‘E’ backward, when seen by another person (Lehrer, Jonah. "How Power Corrupts."). This experiment clearly shows how powerful individuals see the world through their own eyes and do not care for what other view. Besides this, example from history also proves the point that powerful individuals do not show sympathy towards less powerful people. For instance, Adolf Hitler is just one of many powerful individuals who showed no sympathy and mercy to those who were subject of his hate. Hitler believed in theory of Charles Darwin and the notion of survival of the fittest. For him Jews were the mistake of the nature and through his massive genocide he was attempting to correct that mistake. Therefore, to conclude, power gives a person a sense of superiority over other individuals because of which the person does not give importance to what others think or believe. As a result powerful individuals use their …show more content…
Before coming in power, individual make great claims to do work for the benefit of the people but once such power greedy individual gain power, they tend to forget all of their promises. It seems that they never made any promise to do good for the people. Military rulers in Pakistan are a clear example of how individuals become hypocrite because of power. In Pakistan there have been several military rulers who after taking over the power from civilian government promised to have election within ninety days. However, none of them actually organized election within the given time frame. Ayub Khan ruled for eleven years, Yahya Khan stayed for two years, Zia-ul-Haq headed the country for eleven years and Pervez Musharraf for nine years. These military rulers dismissed democratically elected governments and were supposed to help stabilize the conditions of the country which they did not. The power they acquired as a consequence of the Martial Law, made them forget what their initial purpose must have been. Instead of steering Pakistan towards stability, they became obsessed with their power, and chose to ignore the real purpose of their power. This hypocritical behavior of these men led to the corruption that took place during their respective regimes. Hence, by acquiring power, the hypocritical attributes are inculcated in the powerful that result in the corruption that …show more content…
Those who are bestowed with absolute power, tend to feel that it is their right to have it. As a consequence, they may become heedless towards their subjects, self-centered in their intentions and actions, and shallow from the inside. These personality traits of the one with absolute power result in the corruptive mindset and practices of these people. Therefore, absolute power is succeeded by absolute corruption on part of the ones who have acquired such