Great Power and Great Crimes Are Inseparable - Essay Example

?Government Crime Michalowski and Kramer (2006, p have very rightly asserted in their book that “great power and great crimes are inseparable.” They state that people who are in power can put millions of people to death or grant freedom to trillions of slaves with just one movement of their pen or one nod of their head. State-corporate crimes or government crimes take place when the economic powers collaborate with political powers to pursue common interests. Decisions taken by the economic and political leaders of a country form the basis of a number of crimes that affect the whole nation locally and internationally. I intend to discuss the topic of government crimes and some examples in this reaction essay. The civil war, the world wars I and II, the genocides, terrorism, corruption like kleptocracy in Nigeria, and violence seen in the twenty first century, all is the result of decisions taken by the political leaders who are responsible for the mass killings of thousands of people. The power games have affected not only the internal skeleton of the countries but have also inflicted bad effects on the lives of common men. The current century has seen great man slaughters in the name of government decisions. Countries, whether poor or rich, are suffering from never ending terrorism resulting in genocides. The 9/11 attacks on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon have been a negative reinforcement for political decisions of US for invasion in Iraq and Afghanistan. The search for Al-Qaeda and the aim to destroy Taliban-ization has been heavy enough for many countries. If we take a look at the history, we come to know that many political leaders have been running their countries as if these were criminal organizations. Best examples include Adolf Hitler in Germany; Joseph Stalin in Soviet Union, Mao Zedong in China; Augusto Jose Ramon Pinochet Ugarte in Chile; and, Nicolae Ceausescu in Romania. I believe that the government crime is based on only one intention, and that is to increase the political and economic power of the leaders and the government on the cost of the common men. This is called a kleptocratic government. Kleptocracy means that, according to Mesquita et al. (2005, p.164), “the more that is available for a corrupt leader to take, the greater the private-goods focus and the less the total expenditure by the government relative to revenue.” In simpler words, kleptocracy involves such government crimes that are committed by the leaders to enhance the personal welfare rather than the welfare of the country. We can also call it government corruption. Weil (2009, p.385) states in his work that there are many forms of government crimes, starting “from a tax inspector who accepts a bribe to overlook income on which he is supposed to collect taxes, to a mayor who trades city contracts for cash payments, all the way up to a president who grants a lucrative monopoly to his son” (Weil, 2005), nearly everybody in the governmental infrastructure is involved in crime and if not, then his survival chances in the political setup are fewer. Hence, Weil calls kleptocracy as “rule by thieves” (p. 385) which results when the corruption strengthens its roots in the government giving rise to government crimes. I have studied that economists regard government crime as a great hindrance to a country’s economic growth. However, some economists also argue that there are still a few positive effects of government crime. They argue that since a corrupt leader would want to steal for his personal interests, for this reason he will want his country to progress so that there is more enough to steal from. So, he will make sure that there is less corruption at lower levels so that more is left for him at the upper level. Also, there are some policies in the governmental setup that are harmful for the general population and thus corruption in the implementation of these policies will be beneficial. Nevertheless, these arguments are not very sound. The truth is that government crime has always been detrimental at all levels. Now, if I quote some of the biggest government crimes that have happened in the history, then I would certainly discuss Iran Contra Affair which posed a great threat to the political career of Ronald Reagan. “Iran-Contra began as an effort to improve U.S.-Iranian relations, but quickly deteriorated into an arms-for-hostages deal involving Hezbollah and the diversion of funds to Contra rebels in Nicaragua” (Discovery Communications, LLC., 2011). The website claims that Reagan was directly or indirectly involved in the affair. Another government crime example is that of Watergate. It is also a political scandal that resulted in the downfall of Richard Nixon’s presidency. A burglary happened in the Watergate complex in 1972 in Washington. This later on converted into a political scandal. The nation saw a depressing time and two years later, Nixon resigned. The next example is that of the Holocaust. It was a scandal that involved annihilation of millions of Jewish people by the Nazis, and the state was involved in it. This all ended till WWII. It was a massive genocide in which a major population of European Jews was killed. These were some of the biggest examples of government crime. I read on the website of DominicanToday (2011) about some of “the most self-enriching political leaders” of the world. Some of them are “Suharto (former President of Indonesia/$15-$35 billion USD), Ferdinand Emmanuel Edralin Marcos (former President of the Philippines/$5-$10 billion USD), Mobutu Sese Seko Nkuku Ngbendu wa Za Banga (former President of Zaire/$5 billion USD)”. We see that many political leaders and governments are involved in organized crime through narcotics business, weaponry sales, international loans, and most of all, corruption. Redford (2001) states in his article that governments never want the crime rate to drop. This is because governments disarm their people so that they are not able to protect their properties, and this supports the criminals. This makes it easy for more criminals to enter the government until the people revolt. Hence we see that all governments, more or less, are involved in organized crime which is detrimental for the welfare of the population. References Discovery Communications, LLC. (2011). Investigation Discovery. Retrieved March 12, 2011, from http://investigation.discovery.com/investigation/crime-countdowns/government-crimes/government-crimes-10.html DominicanToday. (2011). Government & organized crime, a history of co-existence. Retrieved March 12, 2011, from http://www.dominicantoday.com/dr/opinion/2009/9/4/33139/Government-organized-crime-a-history-of-co-existence#comments Mesquita, B., Smith, A., Siverson, R.M., & Morrow, J.D. (2005). Kleptocracy. USA: MIT Press. Michalowski, R.J., & Kramer, R.C. (2006). State-Corporate Crime. USA: Rutgers University Press. Redford, J. (2001). Government Causes the Crime. Retrieved March 12, 2011, from http://www.anti-state.com/redford/redford1.html Weil, D.N. (2009). Corruption and kleptocracy. Economic Growth. India: Pearson Education India. Read More