When a representative’s primary qualification is a loudly broadcast refusal to partake in the traditional spoils of power, governance itself is transformed into a daily reality television show of moral hygiene. This anti-corruption framing assumes that the primary problem of governance is a moral one, that if we simply replace “bad, greedy men” with “good, honest men”, the State will magically transform into a great one. When “anti-corruption” is elevated from a tool of institutional accountability to a winning campaign promise, it poisons politics. The incumbent is left with an unchecked monopoly on state power, eventually turning the weapon of anti-corruption outwards against dissidents, journalists, or any ordinary citizen who dares to dissent. Actual governance and the anti-corruption aestheticThis brings us to the inevitable collapse of the anti-corruption aesthetic once it collides with actual governance.