A wild story out of Chicago: the governor of Illinois was caught in taped telephone conversations conniving to extract personal material gain from a public political responsibility, the appointment of a person to fill the US Senate seat vacated by President-elect Obama. Here's a bit of the governor's thinking:
It is crudest kind of political corruption. And it raises a couple of issues.
To start, what happens now? Under law, the governor is innocent until the legal process plays out and finds him guilty, if indeed it does find him guilty. He technically retains all the rights and privileges of his office, as he should as a presumably innocent individual. But politics and morality are not the same as law. From a moral-political point of view (and I realize that some will find the construction "moral-political" an oxymoron) he is now essentially powerless. Even though he has legal authority, if he attempts to appoint someone to the Senate seat that person will be automatically tainted by the scandal. The question will immediately arise: did that person actually pay for the seat? Who would want to assume office under such a cloud. From a practical political point of view, the governor has to relinquish his constitutionally defined power of appointment.
And that would make Confucius happy. For him, government is all about Integrity: cultivating what is good and moral within us so that our public actions work toward Humanity. Of course, Confucius hoped that the sheer force of moral example would be sufficient to lead people toward the good; thus he discounted the importance of law as a tool for moral improvement. But what is needed for moral example - either positive or negative example - to work is public awareness of the actual behavior of political leaders. And that is something the legal system can provide, and certainly has provided in the case of the corrupt Illinois governor. Law is good because it can lay bare what actually goes on in the halls of power.
A Confucian perspective, then, would be less concerned about the specific outcomes of the legal process, and wold look toward public repudiation of the corrupt individual and that individual's response. First, there should be, and I think there has been, a widespread recognition that what was attempted here was fundamentally wrong. And the governor's orientation toward his office and responsibilities, seeing them as mere vehicles for private gain, is also fundamentally flawed. Perhaps the governor has unwittingly provided a public service in all of this: he has become a symbol of all that should not be done.
Second, Confucianism is open to moral redemption. We are all imperfect human beings but if we have good intentions and we apply ourselves to righting the wrongs we commit, there is a possibility that we can get back on the track of Humanity. The governor can now do the right thing, having so extravagantly done the wrong thing, and if he does the right thing, it can count toward his moral rehabilitation. Clearly, he should resign from office, to remove the corruption he has introduced into the political process. I suspect that this won't happen (it rarely does in American politics). But if he were honorable, or if he were really interested in regaining his integrity, he would resign. He needs, also, to recognize that what he has done is wrong, take personal responsibility for it, and tell the public what he intends to do to make things right. I'm not sure what that would entail, but it would best include some time away from political power. He needs to repair his family, his social relationships before his political career can resume again, if that should ever happen.
A Confucian view on this would take a hard line on calling out the corruption in this case, and it would demand a certain price be paid by the transgressor. Resignation would be morally mandatory. But it would also open the door for redemption and improvement:
The Master said: "A ruler who has rectified himself never gives orders, and all goes well. A ruler who has not rectified himself gives orders, and people never follow them."
Analects 13:6
If the governor refuses to resign and do the right thing, he will remain powerless, even if he clings to legal formalities. If he rectifies himself, however, he could come back.
Comments