Following up on the articles in which I am giving my opinion on democratic regeneration, today I am going to talk about corruption. The definition given by the RAE dictionary, in the aspect that interests us, is the following: "In organizations, especially public ones, a practice consisting of the use of their functions and means for the economic or other benefit of their managers."
We already know that there has always been corruption everywhere, because the ambition that provokes it is inherent to human beings, but it is its degree that elevates it to become a matter of concern. I think that in Spain the red light has been on for quite some time. There is therefore an individual component of corruption that is the responsibility of each individual. But no one is obliged to become corrupt, not even in the regimes that most favor it, such as dictatorships or totalitarianism. The breeding ground in which it develops also influences it. The same individual will act differently if the environment is conducive and easily impunity or if it presents many difficulties and its impunity is complicated. This is the aspect that should concern us most and see if measures are taken in the right direction.
The first thing I think we should do, given the point we are at, is to reflect seriously and make a kind of individual and collective catharsis. We must all take responsibility, even if it is minimal, and given the situation, see what can be done.
The main problem with corruption is that it robs all of us who pay taxes correctly, but it has many more effects: indignation, distrust of institutions and their representatives, a bad image of the country, a decrease in the quality of life, or feelings of rejection of the group, since I understand that the only way to create an idea of a country is through solidarity.
Having reached the point we are at, the logical thing would have been for politicians, at least those who have the power to remedy the situation, to have taken the appropriate measures to reduce it to a minimum. We already know that this has not been the case. And it has not been for lack of knowing the remedies to the disease. There are plenty of solutions that are known to everyone, because among other things they are of pure common sense, both in the preventive aspect of regulations, as in the punitive. But it is clear that there is no will to do so because it should not be of interest. They continue with their usual policy of verbiage and cardboard because they continue to treat us as minors.
So what is the solution? In my view, the main one, which is a medicine that serves for many ills, is more democracy and authentic democracy. We have reached this situation because the people are not sovereign. We delegate our sovereignty to politicians who presented us with programs that they later largely failed to comply with. They seized it to govern in a different way than they told us, and not content with that, they became butlers of the economic groups that really dictate what to do. That is the origin of many evils, such as the cuts and the economic policy we are suffering. The one who has the power is the one who designs the policy that interests him.
We need authentic regeneration, not cosmetic changes. People willing to conceive politics as an action of service to the people and not of self-interest. People willing to solve problems and not to think that marketing will solve everything. Corruption can be left to a minimum if you want, you only need the will to do so. The remedies are known, the decision to apply them is lacking.
