Bringing good governance to Malta

Abstract

“Power,” Lord Acton once wrote, “corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely”. The issue here is that power does not only corrupt when it is exercised in a situation where few or no constraints exist, but that power at whatever level and in whatever degree, has a tendency to corrupt. It is like a drug which, once tasted, can quickly lead to addiction. Power brings with it a number of advantages, status and influence and it is for this reason that John Locke, as early as the seventeenth century, warned against the attractions of power. His solution, as well of that of Rousseau and Montesquieu, was to create a political system where power was constitutionally limited and diffused rather than concentrated in the hands of a small circle of people. These great political thinkers placed little faith in individuals. They cared very little for the Churchills, the de Gaulles or, indeed, the Mintoffs and the Fenech Adamis of the political world. Instead, they looked to the creation of governing institutions that would serve as a check on power and which would make the covert abuse of power more difficult.