How Can High Levels of Corruption in Central and Eastern Europe Be Explained? What Impact Does It Have on Societies at Large?

Political corruption is a major problem in the US today. It involves almost all levels of government and affects people from all walks of life. Public office is a noble post and citizens put their trust in government officials to carry out their constitutional duties for the benefit of the citizenry. The problem comes in where both elected and unelected officials perform their duties with the goal of personal gain in full view of the law. The ethical and moral wrongs of corruption are unjustifiable in any context.

Someone who is abusing the power that is given to him or her defines corruption, however, the word in its self is more than a simple idea; it is an intricate network. Since people’s views about ethical and moral behavior affect the way corruption is examined, the word has a slightly different meaning to each person. Additionally, misconduct across various societies is viewed differently due to social and cultural borders. The criminal justice system has had many instances where corruption had affected the outcome of a case and has inserted itself into the legal process.

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.

There are few nation-states that one could point to as being truly “corruption-free” (Denmark hosts the most corruption-free gov’t according to Transparency International’s 2014 Corruption Perceptions Index). However, this is a trait that holds back the growth of the whole of society, weakening the disadvantaged and emboldening the powerful. As Transparency International goes on to state:

Furthermore, societies corruption involving financial gains, whether it be not paying takes or taking bribes, or committing a crime to gain money. Greed has a lot to do with this form of corruption, it’s the want, not the need of money that usually drives people to do wrong, it is about good or bad

The negative economic impacts of corruption have grown rapidly, and major international organizations have claimed that corruption hinders economic growth (world bank 2006). Although there are claims that corruption is harmful to economic growth, economists have not really agreed with the argument from a theoretical point of view. Theoretical studies suggest that corruption may counteract government failure and promote economic growth in the short run, given externally determined suboptimal bureaucratic rules and regulations. As government failure is itself a function of corruption, however, corruption should have

Corruption in Afghanistan tends to run in every which way, from the country’s massive heroin production industry and exportation, to government officials taking bribes and finally to the everyday bribes of the average citizen. Due to the high levels of corruption in Afghanistan, corruption will always be a major factor to consider when predicting the outcome of the country’s future success. According to Transparency International, a global civil organization leading the fight against corruption, Afghanistan has been rated 175/177 out of the 177 countries around the world involved in the organization’s research as highly corrupt. “Afghanistan is categorized as Highly Corrupt” (Transparency International), but what is the meaning of corruption really? Corruption is a dishonest or fraudulent conduct by those in power, typically involving some sort of bribery. Based on past experience, Corruption takes place in all sorts of places and levels of the social class system in our society, from the governmental procedures and treaties to the average daily routines of the average citizen, especially in Afghanistan. Bribery is a common occurrence in Afghanistan, from paper work in immigration offices to getting out of sticky situations like

It would be convenient to start this research paper by stating that corruption is a challenge mainly for businesses in developing countries and that it is unrelated to the current affliction of the economy in the United States. It would also be convenient to claim corruption has declined in America as a result of awareness raising campaigns and the numerous anti-corruption laws. But none of those aforementioned statements would be true. Corruption is not the exception, but rather the rule in today’s business practices. In 2004, Daniel Kaufmann, a senior fellow at Brookings Institution and former director at the World Bank, calculated an index of "legally corrupt" manifestations which is defined as the extent of undue influence

Corruption during the 1990’s increased and expanded with the developments of the Russian Mafia. “Many Russians believed that the unbridled pursuit of individual interests during the 1990s gave rise to

Political corruption has existed throughout the ages. It believed to be most prominent in positions of power, because of the role money plays in getting people power. However, over the centuries, corruption has changed so much so as to not match a particular definition of corruption, perpetually growing deceptively harder to find (Ebbe).

Some say that the Chinese government allows tolerable corruption to motivate officials so that they do not have to reward them in other materialistic ways that are incongruent to the benevolent image of the party (Fan, Grossman, 2000). Anti-corruption activities only target on exposing and punishing smaller cases to appease the masses while corruption at the higher levels is often left unscathed (Pei, 2007).

Another important cause of unemployment in Bosnia and Herzegovina is corruption. At the end of each year, numerous organizations do researches related to corruption in Bosnia and Herzegovina. One of these organizations is Transparency International organization. According to Transparency International, Bosnia and Herzegovina is represented as the one of the most corrupted and the most undeveloped countries in Europe. The corruption rate in this country is calculated as 14.9% and it places Bosnia and Herzegovina as the 5th country on the list of corrupted countries. During last four years, this country records constant decrease in global corruption rate because the other countries involved in this survey showed high increase in corruption rate. Moreover, Divjak (2012) states that this country did not make any improvement or decline in corruption rate, so it represents stagnation in economy. Although the decrease is finally stopped, the result is disappointing because there is no desire of the government to overcome the corruption. According to Tomas (2004, p.141.)

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”.

Mostly, corruption occurs in environments where it is tolerated and where the temptation is too strong to resist. In the following paragraph there are some examples of how bribes take place in each and every one of them. The enormous scale of grand corruption in Peru was revealed in 2000 by discoveries leading to the resignation and self–exile of the president, Alberto Fujimori. Video–taped evidence showed that Vladimir Montesano’s, Fujimori’s spy chief, had repeatedly bribed congressmen to defect to Fujimori’s party to ensure its majority in congress. In addition, large bribes had enabled Montesano’s to control most of the media and influence the judiciary. However, Fujimori is credited with having reduced petty corruption. His administration pursued policies reducing the role of government, which he justified not only on efficiency grounds, but on the grounds that reducing the role of government would reduce opportunities for corruption. He attempted to reduce corruption in the police and municipal governments, in the latter case by establishing a supervisory agency to field citizen complaints. However, his reforms of the judiciary are thought to have made it more corrupt. Despite some progress, however, several institutions with which ordinary people have much contact were judged to be corrupt by Transparency International in a November 2001 report. ast week did not begin well for Siemens CEO Klaus Kleinfeld, 49, and supervisory board

     There are several reasons behind the emergence of the phenomenon of corruption and outbreaks in communities. There is nearly unanimity on the fact that this phenomenon is negative behavior. some of the reasons for people to turn towards to corruption is to make more money, engaging in corruption, and dreaming of more strength. However, the main reason that allows people to engage in corruption and enjoy it is the weakness of government regulation.