"Although cases of actual corruption do undoubtedly exist among legislators & government officials, they are not a major motivating factor. The truth, most likely, is that they did not regard it as bribery or as betrayal of their public trust; they did not think that their particular decision could matter one way or another, in the kinds of causeless choices they had to make." #QotD

"So long as such a concept as 'the public interest' (or the 'social' or 'national' or 'international' interest) is regarded as a vlid principle to guide legislation -- lobbies and pressure groups will necessarily continue to exist. Since there is no entity as 'the public,'  since the public is merely a number of individuals, the idea that 'the public interest' supersedes private interests and rights can have but one meaning: that the interests and rights of some individuals take precedence over the interests and rights of others.
    "If so, then all men and all private groups have to fight to the death for the privilege of being regarded as 'the public.' The government's policy has to swing like an erratic pendulum from group to group, hitting some and favouring others, at the whim of any given moment -- and so grotesque a profession as lobbying (selling 'influence') becomes a full-time job. If parasitism, favouritism, corruption, and greed for the unearned did not exist, a mixed economy would bring them into existence.
    "The worst aspect of it is not that such a power can be used dishonestly, but that it cannot be used honestly. The wisest man in the world, with purest integrity, cannot find a criterion for the just, equitable, rational application of an unjust, inequitable, irrational principle. The best that an honest official can do is to accept no material bribe for his arbitrary decision; but this does not make his decision and its concequences more just or less calamitous.
    "A man of clear-cut convictions is impervious to anyone's influence. But when clear-cut convictions are impossible, personal influences take over.... He is the natural prey of social 'manipulators,' of propaganda salesmen, of lobbyists.
    "When any argument is as inconclusive as any other, the subjective, emotional or 'human' element becomes decisive....
    "Although cases of actual corruption do undoubtedly exist among legislators and government officials, they are not a major motivating factor in today's situation. In such cases as have been publicly exposed, the bribes were pathetically small. Men who [hold] the power to dispose of millions of dollars [sell] their favours for a thousand-dollar rug or a fur coat...
    "The truth, most likely, is that they did not regard it as bribery or as betrayal of their public trust; they did not think that their particular decision could matter one way or another, in the kinds of causeless choices they had to make, in the absence of any criteria.... Men who would not sell out their country for a million dollars are selling to out for somebody's smile and a vacation trip [away]. Paraphrasing John Galt, 'It is of such pennies and smiles that the destruction of your country is made'."
    ~ Ayn Rand, from her article 'The Pull Peddlers'
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