Selling Office Position?

Kinda sounds like how corporations buy politicians in the US.

Re: Selling Office Position?


Hi Oristar. Are you searching for the word "BRIBE" or "CORRUPTION"?

(In corruption charges) the Mayor of a city was said to be actively soliciting a bribe of $10,000 in return for the appointment of the chief judicial official of a town affiliated with (not to) the city.

Usually, I think, the exact amount of a bribe isn't known... so it would be more likely to be said, "The Mayor will take a bribe in return for that judgeship in x-town."

I had to look up alcalde, btw. I knew I'd seen it once before, but it is a rarely-used word.

Nope, Piffka. Bribe or corruption is too common to be willingly used here by me.
It is really beyond your imagination how widely the current China government's corruption spreads. In Ma De Selling Official Positions case, Ma De, a mayor of Loudi City, explicitly (not publicly to nation at large before the case cracked, but the people in his city knew the prices) priced all the official positions in his city.

Alcalde in Spanish means mayor and I think it might have originated from arabic.

Thanks, Panzade. It isn't a commonly used word as far as I know. I did see that a school in Texas was using it as the name of its annual... and they had to define it for their readers.

ORistar -- Your description of corruption or bribery or whatever it should be called (??? Still thinking ??? Graft???) in China is more than a little shocking to me. Here is an article that discusses graft and bribery... Chinese Cultural Workshops I suppose if you wanted to "soften" what you called this kind of activity, you could describe these bribes as political gifts for favorable decisions. How does that sound?

This article refers to graft... I wonder, is it bribery when you give the money and graft when you take it?

You may be aware that Clinton was considered to be a terrible fella (by the Republicans) because he supposedly "sold" sleepovers in the Lincoln Bedroom in the White House. I have no idea if this is true and am not particularly upset about it one way or another. As far as I've seen, all political appointments and favors seems to be a "tit for tat" -- "Friends, helping friends." You can imagine what would have happened if a president had made it known that specific amounts of money were expected for all of his political appointments. <shaking head> In the States the proof of selling political appointments would be a huge political blow to any person holding office. There would be a lot of shaming involved, even if no legal charges were filed. Why do you think it is accepted in your country? I wonder if the people feel powerless to stop it because it is so prevalent? Or do you think it make people feel as though they can understand the system even if they don't have the money to buy into it? It is a little disheartening to me.


I had a question about doing business in China and guess this is as good a time as any to ask. <Don't Laugh!> I heard that Chinese businessmen (and politicians, too, I guess) liked to end their meetings with large feasts with lots of alcohol and that the American businessmen were expected to eat and drink to the point of being drunk. When everyone was drunk, people would be less likely to lie or misrepresent themselves, so there was an insurance of honesty. "In vino veritas." Uhhh, are you laughing? Or is this true?

Another word or two might be "patronage' or 'payola.' In American English, "greasing a few palms" works as well.

Hi Piffka,

Sorry for being late, because I just read your reply at dawn today.

Yes, "In vino veritas." But I'm afraid times have changed. Alcohol harts, and all businessmen hope to have a longevity. Americans were clever. They would not like to take the bait.

Thanks, Oristar. Of course, the Chinese are clever, as well. I wondered... it seemed an honest way to insure a deal wasn't one-sided. I liked it.


Long Life, Happiness & Prosperity