Republic, Lost

Lessig presented the topic of “corruption in our government” in his book. There were two element that he went by, bad governance and lost trust. By bad governance, he meant the “government doesn't track the expressed will of the people, whether on the Left or on the Right” (Lessig 2011: 8) and by lost of trust, he meant “when democracy seems a charade, we lost faith in the process” (Lessig 2011: 9). By this, he is means that these two element makes up corruption, how these two element connects and feed on each other’s strands. Lessig argues that our government is corrupted because the US Congress depends upon funding from large donors. The donors gives out big dollar money to help with candidate campaigning finance and that is look at as a systemic problem in our government. Instead of depending on individual people, they depend more on the larger donor who can donate money and influence candidate. With this, it is systematically corruption which means they depend on the government to ensure the people that they protect the government. An example that Lessig gave was Yeltsin, a Russian president who had problem with alcohol, shortly after his seating as the Russian president. He was viewed as a drunk. Lessig said Yeltsin was considered to be a “good soul,” but because of his wanted and worked to do good for his nation, he failed to follow because of a dependency that conflicted with his duty to his nation. He also gave an example of an institution corrupting when individuals depends upon influence that distract them from the intended purpose of the institution. Lessig also argues that congress persons spend three of every five weekdays raising money for reelection. This causes them to spend less time on debating about bills and laws and more time on raising money that can benefit them for reelection again. Congresspersons fundraising and depending on large donors affects the ability of Congress to govern, whether or not it changes the fact that