First let me just say that Senator Elizabeth Warren is one of the most inspiration figures in the U.S Congress, and one that I entirely respect – and this from merely following some for her work online. I would recommend watching this speech because it proposes an anticorruption initiative which can be an interesting template for replicating in other nations. The only thing I did NOT hear much about in this initiative however is concerted refocus on Family & Education in the context of developing a solid ethical/moral foundation – which for some unexplained reason seems to be in the blind spot of politicians nowadays – because without this approach not 1 iota of effort will be sustainable. I really don’t understand why politicians tend to always confine solutions to developing legislation/political constraints to control corruption or other issues, rather than find ways to eliminate them altogether. The question of Corruption starts/ends with nucleus of any society which in my view is about Family & Education, so in my simplistic mind any strategy to defeat Corruption is flawed if we are not serious about renewing our commitment to support Family & Education in the context of promoting values, ethics and morality otherwise we’ll eventually have to live with a straightjacket due to the amount of complex legislative constraints imposed on us, and trust me it still won’t be the permanent fix. So when assessing the slum in the confidence in “Politics” (not just “Government” by the way) between the 50’s/60’s and now please consider adding this small nugget to the mix because a big part of our problems in this day/age is precisely because we’re ignoring it and because of this corruption thrives.
Another area I totally agree with you when talking Corruption is the unfettered influence of Lobbyists & Special Interest groups/individuals (national & foreign) that have infected our Democracies in the west to a degree we’ve not seen before – and I think the United States is the unfortunate champion in this trend. This is also one key area, quite close to my heart due to the amount of times I’ve written about it due to my concern about us in the UK following that same unfortunate path.
Finally we need better/more effective means to call out Corruption when we see it; kind of a coordinated name/shame approach so that these people understand there are social and potentially financial consequences for engaging in corrupt behaviour – and there is no way to hide it.
Anyway, the main take away I suppose is that we do need to be smart when determining issues that can be resolved through legislation, ones that are likely to be more successful if researched/planned/coordinated at the local level and ones that need to be both efforts.
Hope this helps.