Research On The Human And Social Sources Of Public Power Corruption

As deleterious as tumor, corruption is becoming a conundrum that all nationshave to face and tackle. The capacity of settling the issue of corruption affectsdirectly the stable leadership of a party and the prosperity of a nation. TheCommunist Party of China attaches great importance to the cause of fightingcorruption. As a result, the18th Party Congress report pointed out that to pushforward the modernization progress, achieve the “two-century goal”, and realize thedream of revitalization of Chinese nation, it is imperative for the Party to improve itsart of leadership and governance, and increase its ability to resist corruption, preventdegeneration, and ward off risks. Identifying the causes of corruption so as toprevent and tackle corruption at its source is a prerequisite for stamping out thisscourge. Corruption, however, has intricate and complex roots. A philosophicalreflection on sources of corruption contributes to a deeper understanding of itscauses so that effective measures will be taken to eliminate corruption. It is,therefore, of great significance to study human nature and social factors responsiblefor corruption, both theoretically and practically.This paper first defines the nature of public power corruption and its harm tosociety. This part starts with an overview of social contract thinkers’ definition ofcorruption of public power from the standpoint of political philosophy rather thanpolitical science. It differentiates modern concept of nation from the traditional one.The legality and legitimacy of public power no longer depend on God or Mandate ofHeaven, but on the consent of the ruled. Public power corruption is definedthereafter in terms of violating legal power and seeking personal profits. Additionally,corruption is classified from a three-level perspective, and the features and harm ofcurrent public power corruption in China are analyzed. Based on the above definition and classification, this paper continues toexpound the root causes of corruption of public power from the standpoint of humannature and society respectively. Human nature in ancient Chinese classics isreviewed and analyzed. As the origin of Chinese thinking, the pre-qin periodthinking is covered with a focus on Gaozi, Mencius and Xunzi’s ideas of humannature It holds that Gaozi analyzed human nature empirically while Mencius probedinto this concept from the perspective of metaphysics of morals by pointing out themetaphysical basis of good deeds. Then a comparison is made between Mencius andXunzi’s ideas. This is followed by a discussion of modern ideas of human nature inthe West. It indicates that Western scholars analyzed human nature in the context ofmodern national countries in order to discuss the legality and legitimacy of theirpolitical structures as well as basic functions. Consequently, Western idea of humannature not only involves law of nature and natural rights, which is the foundation ofgovernance, but also human reason and sensibility, which determines possible waysof governance. The paper examines Western modern philosophers’ ideas of humannature through law of nature, natural rights, reason and sensibility. The four aspectsare interwoven to form a network of ideas. Looking into the theories of humannature by ancient and contemporary philosophers home and abroad, this researchdraws the conclusion that need for self benefit, or natural desire, is included inhuman nature for sake of self protection. Human nature is said to be good when thedesire is well directed within reasonable limits whereas it is considered bad orgreedy when it is obtained at the expense of the interest of others or the collective.Combined with power, the greed resulted from bad desire will develop intocorruption, which makes the self benefiting desire the subjective motivation andinternal basis of corruption. From the perspective of society, this paper discussespolitical, economic, cultural, and institutional factors responsible for corruption at atheoretical level. First, the relationship between politics and corruption is discussed. As a system, overcentralization of power and lack of balancing mechanism give riseto instability of the whole system. Secondly, the relationship between economicsystem and corruption is analyzed. During transition period, the imperfect system ofmarket economy provides a fertile breeding ground for corruption through powerrent-seeking mechanism, which is its objective cause. The profound reason ofcorruption in transition period, however, lies in the alienation of public power.Thirdly, the relationship between culture and corruption is analyzed. An overallanalysis is conducted from three dimensions, namely Chinese traditional culture,modern culture and culture as social capital. Fourthly, the relationship betweeninstitution and corruption is discussed. Defects in legal institution and mismatchbetween culturally transplanted institution and current institution leads to corruption.As the core of this paper, this paper examines the root causes that lead tocorruption of public power from the perspective of dialectical relationship betweenhuman nature and society and puts forward corresponding solutions. It adoptsMarx’s theory of social organism and human nature theory to evaluate traditionaltheory of human nature and social theory. Human nature, natural desires, humanactivities as practices and human society are interrelated. In a society where marketeconomy is in place, examination of human nature cannot be separated from that ofprivate ownership of the means of production. In other words, only by investigatingrealistic contradiction movement of private property will we be able to gain a betterunderstanding of human nature and corruption. The contradiction movement isdemonstrated by the interplay of social factors. In addition, this paper reviews andreflects on anti-corruption measures taken home and abroad as well as the effects ofthese measures, and points out that it is necessary to probe into the source ofcorruption in order to fight against it. It is also a necessity to tackle corruption fromindividual and social perspectives, to exercise the force of self-discipline andheteronomy, and to make a change from governance by single dimension to combination of human nature and society, and hence to guard against corruptionfrom the perspective of dialectical relationship between human nature and society.Specific suggestions are made to tackle corruption.Main contributions of this paper include: first, adopting a philosophicalperspective of dialectical relationship between human being and society in analyzingthe causes of public power corrution. The agent of corruption is hman being, andanalyzing corruption in terms of humna nature facilitates probing into the source ofcorruption. Simutaneously, human beings are composing elements of society, andtherefore human beings are under the influence of society. Secondly, examininghuman nature with freedom as a starting point, and defining the dialecticalrelationship between human nature and society as relationship between autonomyand heteronomy. Thirdly, reflecting on root causes of corruption in the context ofsocialist market economy with Chinese characteristics and specifying those causesfrom the perspective of relationship between society and government. Fourthly,proposing counter measures to public power corruption based on the interactiverelationship between human nature and society...