Political corruption

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A map depicting Corruption Perceptions Index in the world in 2023; a higher score indicates lower levels of perceived corruption.
  100 – 90
  89 – 80
  79 – 70
  69 – 60
  59 – 50
  49 – 40
  39 – 30
  29 – 20
  19 – 10
  9 – 0
  No data

Political corruption is the use of powers by government officials or their network contacts for illegitimate private gain.

Forms of corruption vary, but can include bribery, lobbying, extortion, cronyism, nepotism, parochialism, patronage, influence peddling, graft, and embezzlement. Corruption may facilitate criminal enterprise such as drug trafficking, money laundering, and human trafficking, though it is not restricted to these activities.

Over time, corruption has been defined differently. For example, in a simple context, while performing work for a government or as a representative, it is unethical to accept a gift. Any free gift could be construed as a scheme to lure the recipient towards some biases. In most cases, the gift is seen as an intention to seek certain favors such as work promotion, tipping in order to win a contract, job or exemption from certain tasks in the case of junior worker handing in the gift to a senior employee who can be key in winning the favor.[1]

Some forms of corruption – now called "institutional corruption"[2] – are distinguished from bribery and other kinds of obvious personal gain. For example, certain state institutions may consistently act against the interests of the public, such as by misusing public funds for their own interest, or by engaging in illegal or immoral behavior with impunity. Bribery and overt criminal acts by individuals may not necessarily be evident, but the institution nonetheless acts immorally as a whole. The mafia state phenomenon is an example of institutional corruption.

An illegal act by an officeholder constitutes political corruption only if the act is directly related to their official duties, is done under color of law or involves trading in influence. The activities that constitute illegal corruption differ depending on the country or jurisdiction. For instance, some political funding practices that are legal in one place may be illegal in another. In some cases, government officials have broad or ill-defined powers, which make it difficult to distinguish between legal and illegal actions. Worldwide, bribery alone is estimated to involve over 1 trillion US dollars annually.[3] A state of unrestrained political corruption is known as a kleptocracy, literally meaning "rule by thieves".

Trying to influence voters by promising freebies, facilities or favours to a particular section (race, religion, economic level etc) of society is also a kind of political corruption. Perhaps the highest level of corruption occurs when bribe is paid by business houses to make state policy skewed towards them.

  1. ^ Tanzi, Vito (1998-12-01). "Corruption Around the World: Causes, Consequences, Scope, and Cures". Staff Papers. 45 (4): 559–594. ISSN 0020-8027. JSTOR 3867585. S2CID 154535201.
  2. ^ Thompson, Dennis. Ethics in Congress: From Individual to Institutional Corruption (Washington DC: Brookings Institution Press, 1995). ISBN 0-8157-8423-6
  3. ^ "African corruption 'on the wane'". 10 July 2007 – via news.bbc.co.uk.