There are a few sure fire ways of minimizing corruption in society.  One distinct method involves individual choices and actions, making the culture give way incrementally to the good things you choose and do (it is more effectual than it sounds, though necessarily a slow process); we should also include with that category the use of contracts between individuals.  Another category involves government and equates to those important institutional bulwarks that protect society from corruption, especially private property and the rule of law. 

People problems always seem to relate back to, well, people.  In society, social problems are the outward manifestation of so many individual ones.  Corruption depends on those who choose either to induce an occasion or take an occasion for sin.  In addition, corruption is sustained by those unwilling to sacrifice anything to overturn injustice; by those, who are willing to exploit the situation; by those indifferent or lazy; and by those, who rationalize the corruption some way or say the problem is too intractable and certainly not amenable to anything they could do.  Therefore the first thing that needs doing in a society to make the social environment unfriendly to corruption, is to build character.  It sounds trite, but look at what’s been said.  If kids are taught to be honest and to do what they know is right; if young men and women are physically and morally courageous; if enough people refuse to sanction any unfair taking of advantage; if they stayed informed, engaged, participatory, energetic; if they work hard and really care about justice; if people are sober, analytical, educated, and feel empowered—I dare say corruption doesn’t stand a chance in that society!  Of course, the same might be true if pigs could fly.  Nevertheless, choose your medicine now and make a few personal New Year’s resolutions for the coming year. 

Making and honoring contracts is particularly helpful.  The philosopher Rocco Buttiglione observed, “The smallest element of the free market is a contract, the encounter of the free will of two human beings.”  Indeed, through contracts we commit to obligations and acquire responsibilities.  We also place limits on the tendency to act out on whim.  A contract is a commercial convention and has legal status, but the basis of the exercise is really promise-making and promise-keeping.  According to economist Osvaldo Schenone and political philosopher Samuel Gregg, “This willingness to make promises with each other—necessarily precedes the contract.  …Contracts, thus, enlist our willingness to be truthful and to act upon reasonable promises and commitments. 

Of course, the question of whether corruption is minimal or rampant may exceed our scope of influence.  Society is bigger than us.  A lot depends on how much discretion state officials enjoy in terms of regulating economic and other activities.  The more discretion that is involved, the higher potential there is for corruption.  It follows that you may want character, including prudence in those persons you support and elect to office.  Did I just see a pig fly by?  The political process will determine how strong government’s institutional bulwarks remain against corruption.  The ancient rights of freeborn Englishmen enter in where they entered the Constitution: private property was once so sacrosanct that people could be classified as chattel.  The federal government couldn’t touch the institution of slavery, because private property rights trumped almost everything else.  While there’s no need to go that far, the Thirteenth, Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments do well enough thank you.  Private property promotes economic growth in that it assures everyone involved (and not involved) that the fruit of your effort belongs to you.  You bought the car and it’s yours—the watch too (even if it is fake).  Your home is your castle and so on.  Moreover, people can’t exchange something unless they own it.  Property makes free exchange possible without resorting to force.  It also makes us cognizant of the rights of others; in particular, an affront to your neighbor’s home or property is probably too close for comfort—it resembles a threat to yours.  This is true whether perpetrated by a robber or extorted by a corrupt official. 

Finally, the rule of law ensures that individual contracts count for something important and that property rights are respected.  Indeed, the rule of law is that indispensable legal framework necessary to minimize corruption by providing for the just resolution of disputes; and the objective fair enforcement of all rules equally regardless of who you are, or whom you happen to know.  Otherwise, the strongest and meanest group or individual wins every time.  Think about it the next time you have to serve jury duty, what it would be like if decisions made by the courts and judiciary were arbitrary and inconsistent—sold to the highest bidder or subject to the whim of those in power.  There are places in the world like that.  Pray it does not happen here.  Edmund Burke said, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”  That’s where character enters in. 

Wesley Allen Riddle is a retired military officer with degrees and honors from West Point and Oxford.  Widely published in the academic and opinion press, he ran for U.S. Congress (TX-District 31) in the 2004 Republican Primary.  Article based on Osvaldo Schenone and Samuel Gregg, A Theory of Corruption: The Theology and Economics of Sin (Acton Institute, 2003). 

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