How does Congress get corrupted?

In the film "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" the viewer gets to see how Congress really works.  Most people do not get a chance to sit in on a Senate meeting, however, watching "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" allows the audience to do so.  The movie focuses on Jeff Smith who was chosen to replace a recently deceased Senator.  Smith is overwhelmingly naive and truly believes that his fellow Congressmen are looking out for his best interest.  However, he film divulges the viewers into the corruption of Congress.  Smith just wants to start a camp for young boys, however his plans coincide with a dam-building scheme that Smith's coworker, Senator Paine, is supporting

     

     We had the opportunity to read further about corruption in politics this week.  The article "Corruption and Political Culture in America: An Empirical Perspective" written by Michale Johnston, discusses various methods and perspectives that explain why there is corruption in politics.  One perspective is the personalistic perspective, which claims that corruption is caused by bad people, people who do not have values, and people who do not generally care about the public good (Johnston 1983).  A second perspective is the institutional perspective, which claims that corruption occurs because of poor organization or flaws in the system and laws (Johnston 1983).  We can relate the personalistic perspective back to "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington."  The corruption that took place in the film was due to the crooked Senators who were a part of the dam-building scheme.