History Main / CorruptBureaucrat

* The SmugSnake Judge Holland P. Frylass in ''Literature/{{Victoria}}'' cooperates with the gangsters in Boston, and protects from the initially non-violent efforts of protagonist [[VigilanteMan John Rumford]] and his friends to drive them out of their neighborhoods. Faced with this judicial sabotage, they eventually [[RageAgainstTheLegalSystem resort to violence]] and subject the judge to the TarAndFeathers treatment, an event that becomes known as the Second Boston Tea Party.

* Beautifully averted in ''Literature/LegendOfTheGalacticHeroes''. At one point, [[spoiler:the Galactic Empire has essentially conquered the Free Planets Alliance but has granted it a degree of autonomy. When imperial officers attempt to get anything done,]] mid-level Alliance bureaucrats block progress by faithfully sticking to rules and regulations rather than caving to pressure. [[spoiler:Reinhard]] commends them for this, openly wondering if the Alliance would be a different place had they been in positions of greater influence and power.

* At the end of [[Creator/FoilArmsAndHog Foil, Arms and Hog's]] "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9tWDqrfM2U&list=PLQYUb9JUs7E_-jkxbSykWTB7NfPOIpYk2 Getting Past Italian Immigration]]" sketch, the Customs Officer initially rejects granting Foil and Hog their visa but changes his opinion upon getting offered some money.

* In ''Fanfic/{{Origins}}'', a ''Franchise/MassEffect''[=/=]''Franchise/StarWars''[[spoiler:[=/=]''[=Borderlands=]''[=/=]''[=Halo=]'']] MassiveMultiplayerCrossover, how else do you think Cerberus got their hands on ''cloaking devices and superlasers?'' Those parts don't just ship themselves! May have something to do with [[FantasticRacism Human-supremacists]] in the [[MegaCorp Band of Brothers]].
* In ''Fanfic/AvengerOfSteel'', Alexander Pierce, as in canon, is already planning how to eliminate the Avengers and Superman because they don’t fit his view of how the world should be run under HYDRA.

[[folder:Film]]

* Judge Turpin from ''Film/SweeneyToddTheDemonBarberOfFleetStreet'' abuses his position as a powerful judge to send an innocent man to prison so that he could rape his beautiful wife, and then perform WifeHusbandry on the ''daughter''.

* The main antagonist of ''Film/{{Leviathan|2014}}'' is a mayor of a northern Russian town, who is seeking to seize the protagonist's home and land.

* ''Film/{{Solo}}'': At the beginning young Han and his girlfriend Qi'ra are on the run from the mob and trying to escape off-world, they convince a customs official to let them in without the proper papers by giving her a vial of hyperdrive fuel that Han stole. She accepts it, but shuts the gate once enforcer chasing them shows up, leaving Qi'ra to get caught. The novelization by Creator/MurLafferty also includes a section from the official's point of view, and how she justifies the "presents" she accepts on the job to herself.

* Indonesian joke:
--> An Indonesian man died and got to heaven. At the Pearly Gates, he saw a display of clocks with labels on them denoting different countries, the kind like you would normally see at airports to tell you what the different timezones are. However, he noticed that the clocks were spinning at different paces. Intrigued, he asked a nearby angel about the clock wall.
--> "Oh, that's the world's honesty clock. The more transparent and honest a nation's government is, the slower the clock spins. Likewise, the more corrupt and dishonest a country's government is, the faster the clock spins," explained the angel.
--> "Ooh, I see! That's why the Sweden clock is barely moving. However, I've noticed that the Congo clock is spinning quite rapidly! That makes sense," the Indonesian man observed.
--> The Indonesian man then looked around and noticed one clock was missing: Indonesia. He then asked the angel about it. "Excuse me, where's the Indonesian clock?"
--> The angel answered, "Oh, the Indonesian clock? It spins so fast we use it as a blower in the kitchen! Works like a treat!"

* ''Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse'': [[Literature/TalesFromTheMosEisleyCantina Feltipern Trevagg]] created new tariffs to line his own pockets, including on the water -- on a kriffing desert planet. [[spoiler:The barve ends up dead with [[{{Pun}} delicious]] irony]].

* In Creator/MichaelFlynn's ''[[Literature/SpiralArm The January Dancer]]'', running an honest administration causes a revolt because they expect favors, too. (They do insist on your doing the job you accepted a bribe for, though.)
** Likewise in ''Up Jim River'', a man offers an official a large demonination bill -- asking his opinion of the engraving.
* Cornelius Fudge from ''Literature/{{Harry Potter}}'' is not above taking bribes from [[SmugSnake Lucius Malfoy]].
* The SmugSnake Judge Holland P. Frylass in ''Literature/{{Victoria}}'' cooperates with the gangsters in Boston, and protects from the initially non-violent efforts of protagonist [[VigilanteMan John Rumford]] and his friends to drive them out of their neighborhoods. Faced with this judicial sabotage, they eventually [[RageAgainstTheLegalSystem resort to violence]] and subject the judge to the TarAndFeathers treatment, an event that becomes known as the Second Boston Tea Party.
* The town master of Laketown in ''Literature/TheHobbit''.
* In ''Literature/IronSunrise'', Madam Chairman initially appears to be a SmugSnake ObstructiveBureaucrat with a pathological inability to believe Rachel isn't doing something wrong, ''somehow''. She turns out to be [[spoiler: part of the ANaziByAnyOtherName group Rachel's been fighting]].

* Subverted in ''Literature/SwordOfTruth''. Nicci needs to raise a large sum of money to secure Richard's release from the dungeons, which she believes will line the pockets of the bureaucrat in charge of these matters. It turns out that he's honest after all, flatly rejecting this due to being a true believer loyal to the government.

* ''Literature/SmallerAndSmallerCircles'': Played with in the case of Attorney Arcinas, an official working in the Philippine NBI. Instead of bribe money, he is more interested in [[AmbulanceChaser personal fame]] and [[GloryHound popularity]], which is why he prefers investigating high-profile crimes, and will only haul his ass on a case if it will make him look heroic and competent in the public eye.

* ''Series/YesMinister:'' Sir Humphrey wavers on the edge of this. While not out-and-out corrupt, he freely admits to being a moral vacuum with no true political loyalty, merely a dedication to the administration of Great Britain (he points out to Bernard in one episode how, if he were to have displayed any sort of stance on politics during his career, [[NotInThisForYourRevolution he'd have gone mad from the endless contradictions and shifting political alignments/arguments]]). ''However'', he also does everything in his power to avoid being held accountable to any decision, and one episode has him assisting a group of bankers. The fact they've promised him a cushy five-figure job with them when he retires is ''pure'' happenstance.

[[folder:TabletopGames]]
* The RPG game ''{{TabletopGame/Paranoia}}'' regularly features encounters with these, freely mixed with every other flavor listed above.

* Many of the ministers of ''VideoGame/{{Jade Empire}}'' would certainly qualify, as they are lazy, always accepting bribes, and offering protection to slavers and criminal gangs.
* Ragou from ''VideoGame/{{Tales of Vesperia}}'' is a corrupt governor who kidnaps kids to feed them to the monsters in his basement for amusement. When he is detained after his mansion is destroyed, he escapes all punishment because the witnesses are the party, an ex-knight, an as-of-yet-unrevealed princess, an imperial mage, a Guild member (who are unprotected by imperial law in the Vesperia universe), and a dog while Ragou is on the highest court in the world. [[spoiler:He is only stopped when the main character murders him in cold blood]].
* Eula Dean, town planner for Cypress Knee, isn't afraid to violate a few laws to bring an economic boom to her town in ''VideoGame/KneeDeep''.
* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsOfColdSteel'' Jusis Albarea's father is this. He uses area Provincial soldiers to do his bidding. [[spoiler:He even used their butler to place his son under house arrest and used the Kreuzen army to put Machias in prison in Bareahard's guardhouse]]
* The player character in ''VideoGame/PapersPlease'' is a customs official at the border to a {{Ruritania}}, a job that pays so little that unless the player is ridiculously fast with clearing people he'll basically have to accept bribes to keep his family from starving.

* There are hints that most of the upper echelons of the Government in ''Webcomic/CityUnderTheHill'' aren't adverse to taking bribes, or are in contact with criminal elements.

* Senator Wheiner of ''[[WesternAnimation/AdventuresOfTheGalaxyRangers Galaxy Rangers]]'' fits this trope like a glove. Despite the fact that the Series 5 Rangers are possibly the best weapon the League has against the Crown Empire, he is constantly trying to get it shut down. He's got a massive case of FantasticRacism against aliens, even their Andorian and Kiwi allies on top of it. But his MoralEventHorizon was crossed well before the series when he was shown to be the politician in charge of the Supertrooper Project. He wanted to bypass the safeguards that Walsh and Nagata put into a project that was highly dangerous and morally questionable at best, [[GeneralRipper declaring they needed soldiers with "no mercy" to fight any alien Earth encountered]]. He tops it off by releasing PsychoSerum into the barracks, causing the Supertroopers (save Shane) to become super-powerful and riot, killing Nagata in the process. It's also established that Wheiner and Walsh keep each other in check through massive amounts of mutual blackmail...and this was a AnimatedSeries from TheEighties!
* The ''WesternAnimation/{{Animaniacs}}'' movie ''WesternAnimation/WakkosWish'' has Baron von Plotz, an avaricious tax collector who taxes the citizens of Acme Falls so heavily that the town suffers massive poverty and economic deflation. Moreover, it's strongly implied he takes the lion's share of the revenue for himself.
* [[spoiler: Judge Hotah]] in Book 2 of ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra.''

* ''Series/YesMinister:'' Sir Humphrey wavers on the edge of this. While not out-and-out corrupt, he freely admits to being a moral vacuum with no true political loyalty, merely a dedication to the administration of Great Britain (he points out to Bernard in one episode how, if he were to have displayed any sort of stance on politics during his career, he'd have gone mad from the endless contradictions and shifting political alignments and arguments). ''However'', he also does everything in his power to avoid being held accountable to any decision, and one episode has him assisting a group of bankers. The fact they've promised him a cushy five-figure job with them when he retires is ''pure'' happenstance.

* ''Series/YesMinister:'' Sir Humphrey wavers on the edge of this. While not out-and-out corrupt, he freely admits to being a moral vacuum with no true political loyalty, merely a dedication to the administration of Great Britain. ''However'', he also does everything in his power to avoid being held accountable to any decision, and one episode has him assisting a group of bankers. The fact they've promised him a cushy five-figure job with them when he retires is ''pure'' happenstance.

[[folder:Live-Action]]

* Governor Golder of ''LightNovel/IveBeenKillingSlimesFor300YearsAndMaxedOutMyLevel'' is ''very'' well known for his laziness and incompetence unless it's his personal gain involved, going so far as to frame people for crimes if they don't pay up, or otherwise threaten his cushy position.