Acton's idea that absolute power corrupts absolutely need be unpacked, sorted out and understood well; far too many leaders are ignorant. Acton wrote in England- a society that had fought against absolutist monarchy since Magna Carta in 1215. It is likely that his comment was in reference to imperial power such as King John had.
Hindenburg bragged that he had only read one book in his entire life. Information exists in-the-world. It is how one processes information that will determine if a politician is competent, corrupt, inept or stupid. It is an amusing paradigm to note that the coefficient of information with corruption would be ignorance and stupidity with honesty.
It is wrong to assume that a hierarchy exists politically such that the leader receives more information than someone at University A or B, or doing research on the Internet. It is the political power to act upon misunderstood or inadequate information for the wrong reasons that serves to accelerate political corruption. Maladroit education and training creates wicked political processing of data later. Some politicians are hell bent to accomplish a particular agenda a priori and are dismissive of information as externalities to their program.
An individual may have copious information and be quite powerless.
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