Lord Acton said that great men are almost always bad men. Their greatness, he thought, contributed to their wickedness: power corrupts, and more power is all the more corrupting. This is taken for a truism in the Western world today, and many of our institutions are built on the understanding that as long as power is limited corruption will be kept in check.
The full truth is rather different, however. Power can corrupt, but more often it provides the opportunity for corruption that was already present in the human heart to enjoy a wider expression. In this light, the task of the wise and good is to confront corruption before it rises to power—otherwise institutional or constitutional limits, however well-designed, will prove to be feeble restraints.
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