"All unconstrained power is bound to corrupt" is the correct conclusion drawn by Montesquieu, a Frenchman who was a judge hundreds of years ago. People who have no power will find nothing to do to give you benefits, and there is no way to think about corruption; Even if powerful people don't ask for benefits, they will come to you one after another for the benefits of power care. Under the impact of strong enough temptation, few powerful people can stick to chastity; When you have power without supervision, you can do whatever you want, and it is even difficult or impossible for lofty people who refuse interests to get this power; This should be a true portrayal of a power-based society.
According to this conclusion, there are only two explanations for the amazing corruption in China after the reform and opening up. First, China is still a power-based society, that is, if people want to get some benefits in some aspects, they must go through the corresponding power checkpoints, and the shortcut through the checkpoints is to give benefits to those in power, otherwise it will be difficult to get benefits through the power checkpoints. Secondly, the binding effect on power is obviously not very good. Corruption is a headache for any ruler, and no ruler wants to see corruption rampant and uncontrolled. At present, the ruling party in China has set up so many barriers to prevent corruption that I believe no country or dynasty can compare with it. However, corruption is still rising wave after wave. The reason may be that it is quite difficult for a power-based society to restrain power, just as it is difficult for the left hand to restrain the right hand.
Corruption in China, in the media, especially on the Internet, is a phenomenon that makes people indignant and abhorrent. But in reality, people are very immune to this phenomenon and have become accustomed to it. For those in power who are caught in corruption, the popular views are even: too stupid (wrong method), too much (too good to stop), without a good background, or on the wrong side, or offending people. This shows the seriousness of corruption in China.
Where there is power, there is corruption, but the degree of corruption is different. Great countries are greedy, and small countries are greedy. Most of the corruption exposed by the media are officials with large criminal records, and the corruption that has not been exposed is really common. Except the party and government organs, all powerful departments, such as public security, justice, taxation, banks, schools, hospitals and state-owned enterprises, are corrupt to varying degrees, which are generally beyond the control of anti-corruption departments. Even in some so-called Qingshui yamen, those in power will try their best to take advantage of their subordinates within their own power, or ask their subordinates to play mahjong with money that both sides know well, or ask them to give themselves gifts in different ways. Don't accompany mahjong, don't give gifts, and you have to have super endurance to look at your face in small shoes.
The power corruption in China has become a major obstacle to the reform, and may even lead to the failure of the reform. Power corruption makes people who advocate reform sad, nervous, embarrassed and crazy; Let those who oppose reform and are hurt by imperfect reform denounce and oppose reform with reason, evidence, anger and strength. Opponents of reform mistakenly believe that corruption can be eliminated by returning to public ownership. In fact, corruption is not necessarily related to the public or private ownership of social wealth, but to power.
If the industrial products produced by a private enterprise are household electric cookers, it is useless to ask the mayor to be the image spokesperson. Since it's useless, why should the boss of a private enterprise give the mayor benefits? If the industrial products produced by a state-owned enterprise are the raw materials of another state-owned enterprise under the jurisdiction of the mayor of another city, the best way for the director of this state-owned enterprise to think about his future is to find the mayor with attractive interests (I am already familiar with this point in state-owned enterprises). Furthermore, public ownership needs highly centralized and ubiquitous power to ensure its normal operation. This highly centralized power combined with public ownership, in addition to the inefficiency proved by history, ubiquitous power has formed another form of corruption-the ubiquitous privileged class, which is not one of the main reasons for the disintegration of public ownership in the Soviet Union.
Obviously, the reform of a country is an action with too many problems and no way out. The purpose of the reform is, first, for efficiency, because only an efficient country will not lag behind the continuous progress of human society; Second, for the sake of fairness, because only by realizing social fairness can we realize the long-term stability of the country and ensure social efficiency. Power corruption will bring efficiency to an individual in society, but it will affect the efficiency of the whole society. Power corruption will directly destroy fairness, lead to social instability and ultimately fundamentally affect social efficiency.
Power corruption is definitely not the product of reform, but the necessity of unconstrained power. Power corruption is a social cancer, which is not only the natural enemy of reform, but also one of the purposes of reform.