Corruption Is A Universal One

Tulia, a small town in Texas of just under five-thousand people, is a frightening example of how the judicial system is governed solely by racism as well as one corrupt man’s word. In 1999, nearly ten percent of the town’s African American population was arrested in a single drug bust. Of the forty-six people arrested, thirty-eight were African-American, furthermore all were convicted. The remaining seven arrested where know to associate more with the black community than the white in Tulia as well. With the towns income levels averaging at or below the poverty line, most arrested could not afford to hire a good attorney that cared or had the time to care, left therefore with one provided by the state. Consequently, convictions were up to ninety years in jail for allegedly selling three and a half grams, more commonly known as an eight ball, of cocaine in drug-free zones. In was only on appeals, that the convictions where revoked on insubstantial evidence.

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

South American governments have always been somewhat corrupt. However, recent public abuse of resources for private gain -- corruption -- has created a disaster in Brazil, and it seems everyone in power is connected in one way or another. During the past fourteen years, construction company executives (among others) colluded to overcharge Petrobras, a state-owned entity, for government contracts, and Petrobras executives looked the other way in exchange for bribes. Petrobras executives then bribed government officials to keep them quiet. (Beauchamp). No one knew about these deals until oil prices unexpectedly dropped, creating massive debt and exposing the deficit the corruption created. The scandal has effectively strained the government's

The corruption culture in Brazil affects not only our health system, but security and education as well and if it ends, we’ll have a wonderful place to

of these sources is electoral fraud. No matter how powerful or accomplished a leader is,

As governments, all over the world is going through corruption, there has been many scandals regarding the corruption spreading across Latin America rapidly. The middle-class Latin Americans are fighting back against corruption. The scandals on corruption came up as Michel Temer, who is passing through his brief presidency near to the finals, has been found that he took 5 million dollars as bribes. The scandal started to virtually affect the entire political class. According to U.S. News, currently three of the Peru’s presidents are in investigation for graft. Right now, big-time notable scandals have been rising in places such as Argentina, Chile, Mexico, etc. It’s been said that in few cases, the leaders themselves are involved and in some

What is the cause? What is the effect? These two questions can greatly impact the mind of a person and broaden their view on the subjects. One of which, is the age old issue of power and corruption. "It is said that power corrupts, but actually it's more true that power attracts the corruptible." --David Brin. Does power cause corruption, or does the corrupted attract and gain the power? The truth is that it is the power that causes corruption. Moreover, it is the idea of power that causes corruption.

Temer’s takeover represents a radical shift in Brazil’s political identity. He and his cabinet are fiscally and socially conservative, thus putting and end to a dozen years of left-leaning leaders. But wether it is liberal or conservative, Brazilian government is still seemingly corrupt as more than half the senate is under investigation for some form of malpractice. 352 of Brazil’s 594 members of congress are currently under investigation for corruption charges.

The costs of corruption are not easy to measure, but certain estimates suggest that, “corruption in Brazil may eat up somewhere between 1.35% and 5% of GDP” (Power and Taylor, 2011). Nonetheless, it is not so much the economic outcome that one must worry about when speaking about corruption. Rather, it should be realized that corruption causes a steady decline in citizen’s trust towards political actors and the political system. In various countries of the global south, licenses, authorizations, and permits of different kinds have to be obtained in order to take part in different activities like opening shops, obtaining a driving license, travelling abroad and so on. For this to occur, government offices and officials have to be contacted in order to inspect or authorize such activities. This gives such government officials a monopoly of power, and many of them (especially in developing countries) abuse this power by not authorizing licenses/documents for months. Further, they extract bribes from the people who need such permits or authorizations (Tanzi, 1998). Clientelism, or a social order depending upon relations of patronage, has a long history in Latin America. It specifically refers to a system wherein politicians offer money, services, or jobs to citizens via party machine operatives, with the expectation being that these clients will engage in some form of political support in order to return the favor (Schaffer and Baker, 2015).

Urban politics in Brazil happen to be the exact reason why housing, transportation, inner-city crime, and more happen to occur in the favelas. Brazil is suffering from inconsistent political agendas which ultimately, has created collective effort by citizens to riot against uneven development.

Ahmad N. (2002). Corruption and Government Regulations : An Empirical Analysis. The Bangladesh Development Studies , Vol. 28, No. 4 pp. 29-51.

Corruption is a continuing problem with the divide between rich and poor, and the high levels of crime. In Transparency Internationals’ annual Corruption Perception Index, in 2008 Brazil ranked 80 (with the 1st ranking being the least corrupt) out of 180 countries. (Transparency International n.d.). The Government itself is the target of corruption accusations. For example, the Senate has only 81 members, but is supported by a staff of more than 10,000 – with benefits such as health insurance, generous pensions and housing allowances, leading to claims of nepotism. Police are currently investigation more than 660 acts that have been passed since 1995 that have awarded jobs and pay rises to members of staff, and four Senate Presidents in the last 8 years have been embroiled in scandals. (The Economist 2009)

Corruption is a form of a crime in Chile that has manifested itself into various small and large businesses, government, and organizations across Chile affecting, individuals on all levels. For instance, bribery is an estimated $1 trillion business in Latin America seeking to secure power at any cost, abusing public resources for personal gain and influencing new and existing policies and regulations to further private agendas (Kaufmann, 2015). Although, there are countries like Chile who have incorporated stronger economic governance in the effort to combat the effects of corruption and bring forth transparency, while other countries in Latin America show governance deficit (Kaufmann, 2015). According to Smith, Morris, and Riveros (2013), “the 2011 Corruption Perceptions Index compiled by Transparency International, Chile ranks 22nd out of 183 nations and scored a 7.2 on a 10-point index” (p. 126). Thus, Chile is demonstrating transparency and exercising restraint in matters of corruption, and the anti-corruption efforts are producing favorable results for Chile’s government. Moreover, the benefits of low crime, democracy, and economic reform has created a thriving, growing economy in the last decade in Chile (Smith, Morris, & Riveros, 2013). On the contrary, there is corruption within the lobbying regulation that affects the political system in Chile. According to Santos and Costa (2014), “Nevertheless, lobbying regulation and transparency of public affairs in

Political corruption is parasitic; it finds a host, and can almost always find a way to survive. Eventually, people grow dependent on this corruption as a means for income, thus forming a symbiosis between the people who benefit from it, and the elites that regulate it. People sometimes ignore the corruption surrounding them, feeling that as long as the politicians do their jobs well, their ‘extra salary’ can’t hurt (BNS).

Corruption is a complex political, social, and economic anomaly that negatively affects developing and developed countries. It weakens democratic institutions, holds economic development, widening the rich-poor gap and certainly leads to governmental instability. The World Bank definition of corruption states that “…the abuse of public office for private gain”.