Sarah Chayes is a journalist who has covered many of the really unsettled countries in the world, including Afghanistan. She is a very, very sharp woman. She is a former senior fellow in Carnegie's Democracy, Conflict, and Governance program, and was for a few years a special assistant to the Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mark Mullen. I am reading her 2020 book On Corruption in America; and What is at Stake, and I highly recommend it. She has also written a 2020 book entitled Everybody Knows: Corruption in America, which probably covers much the same territory, though I haven’t read it yet.
I suggest watching two talks of hers available on YouTube:
First is a short 10-minutre TED talk given in 2015 entitled How Government Corruption is a Precursor to Extremism, which can be seen here.
Second is a 50-minute talk about her new book Everybody Knows: Corruption in America. It is very good, and can be seen here.
There is also a pretty good video of her 18-minute keynote speech in 2017 to a Griffith University conference, based on her 2016 book Thieves of State: Why Corruption Threatens Global Security, which can be seen here.
But the title of the book Everybody Knows in fact sums up the reality. We do all know that the system is heavily rigged in favor of the rich and well-connected, and can think of dozens of examples. We all know perfectly well that there is insider trading going on, even if only the careless get caught. We all know perfectly well there is a “old boy’s network” (actually many of them, and not all boys) that insures the “in” crowd gets the plum jobs, and that they all cover each other’s backs. We all watch people move between the corporate world and government, and back again, ensuring that policy favors their companies.
And while it is true that this sort of corruption has occurred throughout history (Rome was probably just as bad), Sarah’s argument is that it threatens the very fabric of our state, and she makes a persuasive case.
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