Corruption
Introduction
What is corruption? How is it measured? According to the Business Dictionary (2015), corruption implies wrongdoing on the part of an authority through means that are more or less illegitimate or incompatible with certain laid down ethical standards. Another definition of corruption is provided by Corruption Watch (2015), which states that corruption is the abuse of public resources in order to enrich, or give unfair advantage to certain individuals. More often than not, corruption is realized in the presence of secrecy, and is driven by bribery, which perhaps explains why it is not always easy to detect. In most cases, corruption occurs between two individuals, or entities. According to Corruption Watch (2015), the …show more content…
One in every four respondent’s revealed that they had engaged in bribery over the past year while accessing public institutions or key public services. Of those who paid bribes, 40% reported having done so as a way of speeding up service delivery; 27% reported it was the only way to obtain service delivery; while 21% reported having paid a bribe as a way of expressing gratitude or as a gift (Provost & Chalabi, 2013). Over and above, wealthier respondents reported paying bribes more often than non-wealthy respondents. These statistics serve to show the magnitude of the problem of corruption. However, the million dollar question is what are the causes of …show more content…
The latter is the primary focus of this paper in critically analyzing the Soviet legacy in the context of corruption, and how it has ultimately contributed to present situation across world nations. If corruption is to be defined as the abuse of power for private benefit (Tanzi, 1998), then, in the context of the former Soviet Union, such an occurrence would be without limit. This is primarily due to the fact that under the Soviet system, power and status in regards to one’s social position, essentially meant that he or she had complete access to the collective resources of the state. According to Tanzi (1998), although corruption is not a new phenomenon, its ugly head was revealed exponentially on a global scale towards the final years of the Soviet Union, and was particularly pervasive in the years after its
Introduction
What is corruption? How is it measured? According to the Business Dictionary (2015), corruption implies wrongdoing on the part of an authority through means that are more or less illegitimate or incompatible with certain laid down ethical standards. Another definition of corruption is provided by Corruption Watch (2015), which states that corruption is the abuse of public resources in order to enrich, or give unfair advantage to certain individuals. More often than not, corruption is realized in the presence of secrecy, and is driven by bribery, which perhaps explains why it is not always easy to detect. In most cases, corruption occurs between two individuals, or entities. According to Corruption Watch (2015), the …show more content…
One in every four respondent’s revealed that they had engaged in bribery over the past year while accessing public institutions or key public services. Of those who paid bribes, 40% reported having done so as a way of speeding up service delivery; 27% reported it was the only way to obtain service delivery; while 21% reported having paid a bribe as a way of expressing gratitude or as a gift (Provost & Chalabi, 2013). Over and above, wealthier respondents reported paying bribes more often than non-wealthy respondents. These statistics serve to show the magnitude of the problem of corruption. However, the million dollar question is what are the causes of …show more content…
The latter is the primary focus of this paper in critically analyzing the Soviet legacy in the context of corruption, and how it has ultimately contributed to present situation across world nations. If corruption is to be defined as the abuse of power for private benefit (Tanzi, 1998), then, in the context of the former Soviet Union, such an occurrence would be without limit. This is primarily due to the fact that under the Soviet system, power and status in regards to one’s social position, essentially meant that he or she had complete access to the collective resources of the state. According to Tanzi (1998), although corruption is not a new phenomenon, its ugly head was revealed exponentially on a global scale towards the final years of the Soviet Union, and was particularly pervasive in the years after its