Corruption

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Corruption
What is corruption? Corruption is the illegal way of extorting favor from those in power through giving back tokens either in cash or kind actions. The history of corruption dates back to the Roman Kleptocracy up to today, the early 21st century. From its inception, corruption has had only negative effects on the states. Therefore, it is the collective responsibility of country’s citizens and its leaders to say ‘no to corruption’ to curb all the social, economic and political problems liked to corruption.
Corruption started from the heads of the church that had to literally purchase their positions without giving consent to the individual integrity. A good example of such church leaders is Archbishop of Mainz; he put integrity behind and purchased his religious position. Due to the massive corruption in the church, “No bishop could be confirmed unless he pays a huge sum for his pallium” (Chayes 122). Similarly, sinners also purchased indulgence which was seen as a guaranteed passage to heaven. This was a sinister deed by the church as anybody so long as he had the power to purchase the indulgence could sin at the expense of being forgiven by the mere purchase of indulgence. Later on, people became enlightened and realized that they had been brainwashed and extorted by the church. Consequently, the “iconoclasm” riot emerged as the first remedy of dealing with corruption. The people went after the icons and all the manifestations of wealth that they had been extorted and brought them down.

Thereafter, the Protestants who were against Kleptocracy were labeled violent religious extremists.
However, corruption today has caused more harm than good to humanity. It has resulted in the high inflation rate, economic imbalance and moral decay in our society. There is a need, therefore, to adopt more effective remedies of corruption to curb or reduce its effects. In this regard, the Chief of state and people in powerful positions need to steer strict anti-corruption policies and foresee their implementation. The intelligence units also need to condemn corruption and name it a matter of concern to the national security. The governments especially those from “western countries also need to shape diplomatic engagements with the acutely corrupt government in such a way to avoid glorifying their practices” (Chayes 133). They should not entertain corrupt countries; instead, they should put stern measures against them.

Work Cited
Chayes, Sarah. Thieves of state: Why corruption threatens global security. WW Norton & Company, 2015.