Cornelius Fudge was the Minister of Magic for most of the series. All of the major corruption that occurred was a direct result of him however. And since the government was a bureaucracy, there was absolutely no pressure to live up to any promises he made during a campaign and absolutely no elected party to limit his power. So he basically had the power to do whatever he chose within the laws, and he definitely took full advantage of it.
Due to Fudge not having to go through a campaign and prove to his voters that he is qualified, we as readers really have no idea to either who appointed him or whether or not Fudge was qualified for the job. However we can tell through his actions in the books that he was not good at his job. The example of this with regards to its effect on the plot was easily his handling of Voldemort. His failure to recognize Voldemort as returned was the beginning of the end for him. After Harry returned from his battle with Voldemort after the Tri-Wizard Cup, Fudge quickly went from a bumbling man who seemed like he was generally trying to be a good leader, to a raved power hungry leader who would use any power vested to him to hide the fact that Voldemort had returned.
Due to Fudge not having to go through a campaign and prove to his voters that he is qualified, we as readers really have no idea to either who appointed him or whether or not Fudge was qualified for the job. However we can tell through his actions in the books that he was not good at his job. The example of this with regards to its effect on the plot was easily his handling of Voldemort. His failure to recognize Voldemort as returned was the beginning of the end for him. After Harry returned from his battle with Voldemort after the Tri-Wizard Cup, Fudge quickly went from a bumbling man who seemed like he was generally trying to be a good leader, to a raved power hungry leader who would use any power vested to him to hide the fact that Voldemort had returned.
Fudge had the power to basically do whatever he wanted within the government. So in order to spite the two people who knew the truth about Voldemort and were well respected enough to tell the public the truth, he started a smear campaign against them. These two people were Harry Potter and Dumbledore. These efforts in the smear campaign include attempting to remove both Dumbledore and Harry from school, outlandish headlines in the newspaper attempting to ruin their reputation, and criminal charges brought against Harry for using magic outside of school. The criminal charge is the most obvious example of the smear campaign because Harry only used his wand in order to protect himself from the dementors, and in this case Fudge chose to change the process given to offenders and put Harry on trial instead of just a sit down interview. Dumbledore caught him and said, "And you certainly seem to be making many changes, Cornelius [Fudge]. Why, in the few short weeks since I was asked to leave the Wizengamot, it has already become the practice to hold a full criminal trial to deal with a simple trial of underage magic!". When he said this he was calling out Fudge for abusing his power and taking advantage of it.
Fudge also gets so paranoid about Dumbledore, that he creates and passes a law that allows him to hire the next Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. He places Dolores Umbridge there and then appoints her to "High Inquisator. Here she basically kept a watchful eye on Dumbledore along with gaining the ability to hire and fire other teachers. She was basically a puppet with ears and eyes for Fudge at Hogwarts.
The reason that Fudge was in such denial regarding Voldemort and failed to recognize the truth was deep down he knew he did not know how to handle it. The wizarding world had been pretty peaceful beforehand and he knew that Voldemort returning would throw the public into a frenzy and demand answers from him, answers he did not have. So in order to protect his reputation, he chose to lie to the public and actually put them into more danger. The public was completely unaware of his return so they never did anything to prepare for a potential return of him.
Overall Fudge was a very poor leader and used his power to protect his reputation even if it put the people he governed into more danger. If he had to have been elected then he would have felt more accountable to not only live up to his promises he made to the public, but also to appease the public enough to get reelected.
The reason that Fudge was in such denial regarding Voldemort and failed to recognize the truth was deep down he knew he did not know how to handle it. The wizarding world had been pretty peaceful beforehand and he knew that Voldemort returning would throw the public into a frenzy and demand answers from him, answers he did not have. So in order to protect his reputation, he chose to lie to the public and actually put them into more danger. The public was completely unaware of his return so they never did anything to prepare for a potential return of him.
Overall Fudge was a very poor leader and used his power to protect his reputation even if it put the people he governed into more danger. If he had to have been elected then he would have felt more accountable to not only live up to his promises he made to the public, but also to appease the public enough to get reelected.