Systemic Analysis of Power and Authority

Sor Juana analyzed how institutional systems themselves corrupted individuals and knowledge through their structural arrangements of power. She recognized that corruption is not merely individual vice but emerges from systems that incentivize deception, concentrate authority, and obscure accountability. Modern anti-corruption must therefore focus on systemic redesign, not just individual punishment. This means examining how institutional architecture enables misconduct: unclear chains of responsibility, limited oversight, concentrated decision-making, and hidden financial flows. Sor Juana's intellectual tradition teaches that fighting corruption requires understanding these structural vulnerabilities. Effective anti-corruption work involves auditing systems themselves—checking whether decision-making is appropriately distributed, whether conflicts of interest exist structurally, whether incentives reward integrity. This systemic approach differs from catching individual corrupt actors; it prevents corruption from emerging. It treats institutions as designs that can be improved through rational analysis, just as Sor Juana treated intellectual traditions as systems that could be examined and reformed.