Dear Reader,
I don’t like as a rule to bring up specific cases of governments in this blog… but in this instance I will suspend my rule and make a general statement from a specific example. The example is Russia.
Descendants of the Scythians, the Russian people have one of the most sad histories of any people. Brutalized by the Mongols, and trod upon by the Tsars they have shown uncanny resiliency. Operation Barbarossa murdered twenty million of them. Yet they are still here. If any people deserves a day in the sun it is Russia.
The ascendancy of a people, especially today, requires virtue. Machiavelli said that a corrupt people can never be free. He also agreed with Confucius that corruption flowed from the governors to the governed. The Taipei Times reports that Russia’s government is one hundred fourty third in the world in corruption by Transparency International’s global corruption perceptions index. Apparently Russia has a problem. If the Russian government has a problem it only needs look in the mirror to see the culprit.
For Russia to reach it’s potential Russia needs to get a handle on the endemic corruption that is a holdover from the old Soviet State. To this end the Numa, (Fourth Branch of government), would be the best means.
The Numa would start by placing video cameras and other recording equipment in the offices of every government official. The tapes would be classified as secret or not. Those recordings not deemed secret by the pertinent government office in partnership with that department of the Numa would be placed on the internet or other suitable public location. Anyone having business with the government that was not satisfied with the results would have access to the relevant recordings. Making government open to scrutiny.
Next the Numa would investigate the past dealings of public officials. The Numa would prosecute any officials that had been found to have involved him/her self in corrupt practices. There could perhaps be some form of amnesty in the first years of the Numa to ease the transition. But truly egregious acts must be punished.
The primary purpose of the Numa would be to let the government govern. Not to allow government to be a vehicle to enrich those that come into power. Corruption in government makes good government impossible, the incentives are wrong. People need good incentives to do good works. Right the incentives and good government will follow.
Implementing the Numa in this instance would be tricky at best. The powerbrokers, (bureaucrats), would undermine the attempt at every turn. Knowing this is does not mean certain avoidance. People are crafty when their personal interest is involved. Regardless of the societal benefit or detriment. They would correctly see that they would be one of the key targets of this new branch of government. The crafters of the Numa would have to even more sly.
If the Russian people were to demand the implementation of the Numa and the government were to acquiesce to the demand, the power of the Russian people and their ingenuity would be unleashed. Resulting in a paradigm shift in world affairs… To the good!
