Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : View from the Center and Left -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: one_less who wrote (10561)	2/1/2006 6:40:53 PM
From: Lane3	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 541582

I am only proposing one consequence for violating the anti-corruption statue, which as I stated is 'removal from office'. I've never looked at the question before but I would imagine that impeachment and removal are available remedies for most offices now.

To: one_less who wrote (10561)	2/1/2006 6:56:28 PM
From: TimF	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 541582

Are you proposing removal from office with a lower standard of proof, or less due process than a criminal conviction, or even impeachment? If the answer is no, than I don't think it can accomplish much. If the answer is yes, its possible to turn the anti-corruption statue in to a political weapon. Ideally the answer for corruption that doesn't rise to the level of a clearly illegal act but that is a problem should be dealt with by the person in question not being re-elected, but in practice this is difficult. The corruption is often hidden, when it does go public it might be unclear, incumbents have an advantage and may be able to overcome the charge of corruption, and political concerns may override an appearance that the candidate is slightly corrupt. A voter might reasonably vote for a candidate of somewhat questionable personal integrity over someone who is strongly pushing political and ideological ideas that the voter considers to be horrible. I think that perhaps more attention can be put in to ethics considerations, and sometimes this attention could result in impeachments and/or prosecutions. However I'm not sure what changes could be put in place to make the enforcement much more effective. You might get a big increase in pressure against corruption, but you might also get some problems as a result, and also the pressure might be hard to maintain. Other than extreme cases which could be prosecuted I'm not sure that you could get any kind of reasonably unbiased assessment of the problem and possible punishment in each situation. Yes corruption/conflict of interest is a problem, but its a complex mess and I don't' see a clear way to make it less complex or less messy. Have you ever looked in to Public Choice economics? econlib.org gmu.edu gmu.edu