The Power Of Corruption And Abuse Of Power

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In the words of British politician Lord Acton, “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” When total power is granted to one person, there is no doubt it will corrupt and that person will use such power for their own benefit. It has been seen throughout history that unlimited power is too much for anyone to handle. Absolute power does corrupt, it has been seen in a multitude of leaders, and people in these powerful positions tend to act on their own needs, even if they didn’t show evil behaviors beforehand.
Throughout world history, many powerful people become corrupt and abuse their power, including political leaders and heads of corporations. One such political leader was Richard Nixon. He …show more content…

President, and during his time in office, he committed what is arguably the most infamous political corruption scandal in U.S. history:Watergate. Mitchell Young describes the affair as, “centered on the cover-up of a failed attempt to place electronic listening devices (bugs) in the DNC offices” (15). This affair was well documented, and had become an infamous case. Nixon had those bugs planted for his personal gain, using the information gathered to sabotage the Democratic party. He felt more entitled to do so because of his position in government. Nixon believed that he could get away with it and, this all comes from the psychological aspect of power. It gets to our heads and when people feel powerful, they feel invincible and that they can do as they please without fear of repercussion. This case supports the idea that when a person is placed in a powerful position, such as president, they will become corrupt. Even though the President isn’t even a ruler who has absolute power, they still have a substantial amount of power and still corrupt. Now imagine a ruler who has absolute power over his or her people, they are destined to corrupt. Nixon is just one of thousands of leaders to have been caught abusing their power. Not only does political corruption

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