Lord Acton's aphorism that "power tends to corrupt" has been used by critics of socialism to argue that the leadership of a socialist state would be more susceptible to corruption than others because a socialist state has a broader scope than other states.
阿克顿勋爵的格言“权力导致腐败”（Power tends to corrupt）被一些对社会主义的批评引用以指出社会主义国家的领导人会比别人更容易腐败，因为社会主义国家有比别国更宽泛的领域。