Political Corruption Essay

“Corruption, improper and usually unlawful conduct intended to secure a benefit for oneself or another its forms include bribery, extortion, and the misuse of inside information. It exists where there is community indifference or a lack of enforcement policies.”(Encyclopedia Britannica). Today political Corruption in all forms exists in every country in the world. In some countries it is more prominent then in others, but no matter where you go it still occurs. Recently in mid 2013 some political corruption was brought to light in New York. “Since 2007, state senators have been more likely to be arrested then to lose their seats in a general election,” (New York Public Interest Research group). In April of 2013 New York State

Speaking about corruption in the international realm was a taboo before the end of the cold war. But the end of the cold war has led to the consolidation of democracy, political stability, and respect for the rule of law, as well as effective development and expansion of open and competitive markets. In the recent years, especially from late 1980’s, the phenomenon of corruption has received a great deal of attention from the international community.

Throughout history positions of power and wealth have been plagued by corruption, does this power cause people to be corrupt? Or is the power and wealth earned through immoral and corrupt practices? In order to find these answers, one must define what they feel is corrupt, for most corruption is the act of being dishonest or immoral with the motive of personal gains of money or power. There are numerous accounts of politicians, military leaders, business owners, entrepreneurs, and millionaires, all earning or using their power and wealth in an immoral and corrupt manner. Whether money is used for personal gain, used to corrupt others, or the wealth was earned by corrupt ways, it seems that the accumulation of wealth is constantly accompanied by corruption.

Political machines were one of the main sources of corruption. Political machines were extremely powerful organizations linked to political parties - these machines controlled local government cities. A “political boss” controlled jobs and services by offering bribes in return for political votes. A spoils system rose from this in which political supporters were given jobs and favors for support, however, often times the people given these political jobs were not qualified for them. Moreover, “Big Business” was yet another form of corruption.

Political things in a society are important to the civilizations survival. But, sometimes it all goes wrong. Political Corruption is mainly associated with the fall of big societies, such as Nazi Germany and Rome. The leaders get to power hungry, they take away citizens rights and beliefs, they also surround themselves with the gold they collect from their people.

First, it is important to define what corruption is. The term, “corruption” covers a broad range of human actions,

The corruptin is the abusive and inefficient use of resources by trusted powers for private gain. Corruption is not committed to the rule of law, justice, human rights and the integrity of public service, and it hurts every one who's life, livelihood, or happiness depends on the integrity of people in a position of authority.Some times it's devastating impact is more visible . The governance ,transparency ,and fighting corruption is so important to sustaine economic growth.

Corruption, as we know, exists on all levels of society. We see it everyday when people and businesses lie in order to reap the benefits. Even the slightest bit of corruption is inevitable to some degree. The practitioners develop sly tactics to manipulate people, so the act does not appear to be corrupt, and so they are able to get away with it. At times, an act will appear to be purely out of good intent, but may actually be immoral. Often the semblances of purity and innocence that a group upholds are actually corrupting that present generation and generations to come.

The unlawful use of a person’s position while in power leads to multiple problems with today’s government. The corrupt methods politicians use are ideas that are strictly in place for personal gain. Present throughout history and still prevalent within today’s world, government corruption has consisted of a number of negative issues including bribery, economic and social impacts, and the misuse of power. Government’s role within daily life has been shown to have negative effects as seen in many aspects of life as well as in literature.

On any given day, if you were to tune into a news channel or browse the internet, there would be a good chance that a story of corruption would be uncovered. Corruption has been taking place since the beginning of time (literally). Some would say that is customary, and many would even argue that it is inevitable. In the book, ¬Global Corruption: Money, Power and Ethics in the Modern World, Laurence Cockcroft attempts to identify and educate others on the ethical (or unethical) dilemmas that many individuals, companies, and/or governments are facing throughout the world. Global Corruption provides the reader incredible insight into a wide array of instances of corruption. Mr. Cockcroft begins by giving the reader a brief overview of what defines corruption, along with several examples of corruption that has occurred throughout the globe. Then the author transitions into why corruption occurs by identifying the common drivers of unethical behavior, and concludes the book by offering some analysis on what measures need to be taken in order to fight global corruption.

Throughout history, several sovereign nations across the world have been subject to political corruption by government officials for illegitimate personal gain. Corruption used to be a low profile line item; however, today it has reached heights at which the government must get involved to try to cover it up to ensure its secrecy and avoid exploitation. This instance is referred to as Crony Capitalism, which is a theory that has evolved from corruption over a period of time. This idea involves more intervention by the government who achieves its purpose by providing incentives and subsidies to their known business partners in specific operating fields. They favour this particular set of business owners who they keep close ties with over others, making it difficult to create competition which eventually leads to a monopoly. The government gets connected to the economy, by playing the role of the “investor” motivated to extract money from the unconnected many by means of deviancy and corruption. U.S. politician David Stockman defines Crony Capitalism as the aggressive and proactive use of political resources to gain something from the governmental process that wouldn’t otherwise be achievable in the market. My essay will focus on how Crony Capitalism has created an impact over people across the globe, through means of corruption by the government and businesses.

The first chapter is an attempt to define corruption. It is important to divide overlapping and complicated terms such as corruption, scandal and fraud. Corruption is defined as an illegal transaction, where both actors benefit from their special position in the market or the government. Scandal is the public reaction to allegations of corruption and thus it is interconnected with the issue of legitimacy. Fraud, however is a purely criminal cathegory.

In a recent opinion poll conducted by Transparency International on corruption, one in four people around the world admitted to paying bribes in the last twelve months. The survey also categorized the countries according to the corruption with countries like Canada, Finland, Norway and Japan listed as least corrupt countries and Libya, India, Kenya, Uganda were put on the high end of spectrum. The poll revealed that in countries with high level of corruption, people distrusted politicians, police and judiciary.

Corruption is the biggest among the challenges in Nigeria. It is clear to every citizen of Nigeria that the level of corruption in the country is high. Corruption, an ethical and moral problem which varies from place to place, time to time, culture to culture and with the level of economic development; is a global phenomenon that affects developed, developing and underdeveloped nations of the world. It is a major societal problem in the 21st century (Aluko, 2008).

The World Bank defines corruption as ‘the abuse of public office for private gain’. The World Bank’s definition asserts only public corruption, leaving out private corruption. This I see as a drawback as it is a recognized factor that private sector corruption enables public corruption to thrive. Ian Bannon argues that ‘this definition is not original, but it was chosen because it is concise and broad enough to include most forms of corruption that the Bank encounters, as well as being widely used in the literature’. For Humphrey Asobie, the definition by the World Bank ‘creates the impression that corruption is a malady that primarily or even solely afflicts those in the public service, especially state authority, whereas those in the private sector and civil society may be equally culpable’. Daniel Kaufmann saw the public office centered approach towards the definition of corruption as deficient asserting that ‘… we challenged this definition of corruption as placing too much emphasis on public office...we presented empirical evidence of the extent to which many powerful private firms engage in undue influence, to shape state policies, laws and regulations, for their own benefit’. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) defines corruption as ‘the abuse of