Friday, March 18, 2016

Civic Duty in Brazil

There are interesting things happening in Brazil.

A scandal involving the state oil company (Petrobras) and the former President (Lula da Silva) has taken a bizarre turn when the current president (Dilma Rousseff) appointed him to her (yes, President Rousseff is a woman) cabinet, in a attempt (according to recorded phone conversations) to help him avoid prosecution, because cabinet ministers get special priviledges regarding prosecutions and have never been successfully prosecuted.

Millions of Brazilians are protesting in the streets over the corruption, and the supreme court of Brazil has declared the appointment illegal.

Brazil has been a economic success story under da Silva (who is socialist, but a fiscal conservative), but the economy is in chaos over the recent scandals. “I voted for Lula, but now I think he is a thief.”

So we have flagrant corruption in the government on one hand (violations of the Golden Rule), and on the other hand, this has incentivized the people to get involved (civic duty). But civic duty has to be a constant thing, not just a single event, because the temptation for corruption with government power is a constant thing.

No comments:

Post a Comment