Reframing Power as Service and Accountability

Sor Juana's writings on authority, gender, and rights reflect a vision of power as responsibility rather than entitlement. Those with authority—in Church, Crown, household—should exercise it for the common good and the flourishing of those under their care, not for personal enrichment or aggrandizement. This reframing directly challenges corruption. When power is understood as a privilege, a possession, or a tool for personal advancement, corruption flourishes. When power is reframed as trusteeship—authority held temporarily in service of others, with accountability for its use—corruption becomes harder to justify. Anticorruption efforts strengthen when they shift institutional culture from viewing leadership as domination to viewing it as stewardship. This means establishing clear accountability mechanisms, ensuring power holders answer to those affected by their decisions, and embedding the expectation that authority serves others. Sor Juana's intellectual tradition offers a philosophical foundation for this reframing: legitimate power operates transparently and justifies itself to those it affects.