Motivating the Masses to Mobilize Against Government Corruption
Motivating the Masses to Mobilize Against Government Corruption
In America, where most people have access to reasonably priced food and a handheld device that can instantly display any form of entertainment conceivable, taking up arms against corruption in government is a hard sell.
BY COLIN WOOD / DECEMBER 22, 2016
Editor's note: This story is part one in a three-part series on the role technology can play in tackling government corruption.
Why do people lie, cheat and steal? Because it’s better than suffering; because if they don’t, someone else will. The question of man’s true nature that has beleaguered thinkers for millennia has an answer. Man is not good, nor evil. Man is self-interested. He has capacity for deeds of all kinds, but settling on either label is to miss the point.
As for whether government is corrupt — the answer is yes. All governments are corrupt to some extent because all governments are made of people, and people do things they are not supposed to do. People bend the rules where it suits them. Most know this is how the world works; from diapers to diapers, it's always politics.
But can technology make a dent in political corruption? In this three-part series, we'll delve into the corruption that has existed in the public sector for decades and why, the ease (and difficulty) in mobilizing smartphone-weilding citizens to do something about government corruption, and the tech companies and organizations that are working to shine some light on the matter.
HISTORY OF CORRUPTION IN GOVERNMENT
Corruption is difficult to account for because the whole idea of the thing is that it's meant to remain secret. The best-known examples of corruption in American government — like the Watergate scandal — leave many to believe that this sort of behavior is normal in politics. Watergate is frequently cited because it involved the president, and because it happened in a transition period where the nation's cynicism was concerned. It was a wake-up call for many, and American government has provided many more examples of corruption since....
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