A Critical Review of Walden Bello, 2014, Does Corruption Create Poverty?
Foreign Policy In Focus.
I. Introduction
Walden Bello in his article Does Corruption Create poverty? gives us an idea of corruption is not the main root of poverty and what the real causes of poverty are. I am grateful that Bello’s argument that corruption is not a main root of poverty is meaningful, he indicates the links between the economy and corruption, as well as politic and corruption. This paper will review Walden Bello’s article as also his main arguments, and will evaluate the quality of Bello’s writing and focus on any areas of weakness within the story. The following points, statistic data inference or misinterpretation, pre-judging and blaming the structural adjustment and neoliberalism, and
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It erodes trust in government’s work and does not lead to economic recession and stagnation. In my opinion, the author fails to provide adequate information to supports this claim. The author does not only give wrong example, China and Philippines, but also mis-inference. Corruption in my perspective is the termite that erodes wood and correlation between poverty and corruption. Poverty gives rise to corruption, while corruption worsens poverty. Corruption distorts and changes direction of economic growth. It cuts down and takes an aquarium of economic development and functioning of the country (Johnston, 2009). This is similar to Anup Shah’s article that poverty is originated by corruption and a consequence of poverty; it happens all over the world and affects not only individual but also society and growth of the country (Shah, 2011). Thus, it is obvious that corruption is a major threat and a cause of poverty thanks to it discredits trustworthiness in public reign internally and externally. This leads to ineffectiveness and hindrance of various development projects as also society and economy of the
The corruption in the government, one of the main problems in the majority of countries in the world, causing death, poverty and impunity in the life of the persons. People think that government corruption is just buying votes to win the elections, but this is just a little part of the corruption. The corruption of the government has been present for a long time ago, covering a great variety of problems in the society, like the stealing the money from the people, alliances with the narco, using the power just a favor of the politicians, increasing the prices of food, fuel and public services just to make more money. The people do not have the necessary services to survive and if the services are available they are expensive. In some parts of the world the government is colluding with the delinquency, in the case of Mexico, the government is colluded with the narco. The corruption in Mexico has permeated several segments of society like political, economic, and social. Also it has greatly affected the country’s legitimacy, transparency, accountability, and effectiveness; knowing the majority of the people of
Kleptocracy is defined as a state controlled to benefit an individual or small group who use their power to gain “a large fraction of society’s resources” to use for themselves. Kleptocracy “obstruct[s] development” of countries because the money taxpayers entrust to further develop their country through projects such as schools or infrastructure, becomes diverted to certain people for their own personal gain. Daron Acemoglu, Thierry Verdier, and James A. Robinson, writers for the Journal of the European Economic Association, established that kleptocracy runs rampant in “many developing countries.” As a result of this corruption, countries suffer “highly inefficient economic policies” and “expropriated the wealth of their citizens.”
First, it is important to define what corruption is. The term, “corruption” covers a broad range of human actions,
I Think corruption starts within organizations is when There are no authority checks and balances that effects the mindset and integrity of The employees who are in high management positions and also working within the any department of a government sector or business. With the economy growing in many states corruption decreases because jobs are able to pay people well and not below what the job position requires. Many factors play when it comes to corruption because it starts from home so a family or person can live well and a major factor can be the strength of the state presidency office if, the presidency for the state is not strong and showing good change to help the state in bad times people start to lose motivation and practices that things will get better and decide to take things in their own hands as for corruption.
Throughout human history, there has been corruption all over the world and of course different types as well, no doubt that each country has some form of corruption but it is at its worst in Latin America. This dreadful act is at its time high and it's not going down anytime soon, most of these Latin American countries lack of democracy, but instead have a dictator ruler. Corruption among official is abuse of power for their own self gain. According to Americas Market Intelligence “Latin American countries were characterized by having weak democratic institutions and authoritative governments, the perfect combination for the spread of corruption” they also mention the adverse effect corruption has on these countries, the high levels of corruption experience lower acceptance of established institutions, defaulted court system that cause a political instability,lower quality of public infrastructure and expenditures on education and health.There website also mentions that there is a direct correlation between corruption growth of the informal economy and the spread of illicit activity in the form of organized crime and illegal cartels.
"Corruption is an important cause of poverty because it promotes unfair distribution of income and inefficient use of resources." (The Link Between Corruption and Poverty) Americans enjoy a government that, although it has its flaws, looks out for its citizens and is geared for the benefit of the people as a whole. Leaders that are elected generally have the population's best interests at heart and fight for better lives for average Americans nationwide. Most countries in Africa do not have the luxury of such a government. The officials only care about themselves. They pocket a fair amount of the donated money and another significant portion is used for selfish projects that do not really benefit the country or the millions of poverty-stricken citizens. "The well-connected people don't have to pay the same taxes like everyone else; policemen and other junior officials seeking small bribes don't dare solicit cash from them. At the end of the day it is the poor and the weak who face the true brunt of corruption. This is a critical link between corruption and poverty." (The Link Between Corruption and Poverty) This also has an effect on the leaders that do have good intentions at heart. They have never been trained on how to be effective and they also, accidentally, use the money in many unhelpful ways. The money is squandered time and time again and the rest of the world does nothing but keep the supply of it coming. This is another area where something must
growth. Corruption reduces the efficiencies of the operations of the market economy and a loss
First off is how resources fuel corruption an example of this is money. Money is gotten from resources and money can be used to buy thing for one owns gain and if someone of power has lots of money they can use that money for their own gain or there countries gain or whatever it is they are in control of.
Thus, corruption proposes that since the government is spending money away from programs that could benefits more of the lower income individuals. For examples, the government couldn’t provide public goods like education and health that could help the low income individuals because of the tax system. Yet, the higher income individuals have access to resources that the lower incomes individual don’t have to evade taxes by bribing government officials to lean on their side known as lobbying (Dincer and Gunlap). This research shows that the higher income individuals have a better chance to bribe governments causing the gap in income inequality in the economy because they have the resources to do it.
Corruption has been seen as a major obstacle of rapid economic growth and development. It is a complex phenomenon whose roots lay in political and bureaucratic institutions and affects the economic growth of different countries. It makes the governments intervene where they do not need to, and it weakens the ability of the government to enact and implement policies in areas in which government intervention is needed. Over the years, the dispute of the economic consequences of corruption on economic growth has been a topic of analysis. The analysis is focused on the effect of corruption on economic growth. Several studies have generally found a negative correlation between corruption, economic growth, inequality, governance, income distribution and business environment. At the same time also some positive correlation with economic growth has been found to exist.
Ahmad N. (2002). Corruption and Government Regulations : An Empirical Analysis. The Bangladesh Development Studies , Vol. 28, No. 4 pp. 29-51.
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).
While corruption is said to generate inefficiency and retard growth in a country (Ackerman, 1997), China manages to deliver astronomical economic growth amidst rampant corruption (Li, Peng, 2001). To explain China’s puzzle, the essay first focuses on the causes of corruption and why it has yet to be eradicated, and then analyzes its economic impact in the short and long run.
Democracy has been familiarized as being the essential goal of any political institution. A government system modeled of the people, by the people and for the people is a highly attractive concept to most developing states that suffer from governments that still control the lives of its citizens. However, such states struggle to enable the process of formally consolidating their government. That is to say, despite many developing nations adapting the idea of democracy, they still face challenges that prevent them from being recognized as a democratic state. In fact, very few “new democratic” nations are believed to have a strong and secure system, leaving others to be viewed as only “condemned’” to remain democratic” while they “muddle through as ‘unconsolidated democracies’” (Diamond, 1997, p. 47). Where societies expected a state with increased individual liberty, protection from abuse of power, new economic and political opportunities, they instead encountered a poorly institutionalized regime lacking traits of good governance. A variety of arguments are provided to explain why such nations struggle to mirror the western states in the promotion of democracy. Of these many issues, political corruption is deemed to be a leading cause to why democratic consolidation remains elusive in most developing countries. Corruption plays a staggering role in stalling democratic consolidation in a number of ways. High levels of corruption are evidently associated with
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”.