Sociological Review of Inequality and Corruption

Ultimately corruption takes away from the total resource pie, which essentially takes away from the common populace. When a nation’s resources are fraudulently diverted, societal development and progress suffer across the board. Accordingly, nongovernmental organizations such as Transparency International concur with this assessment and also depict corruption as an anti-poor mechanism. Hence, corruption feeds into the cycle of poverty in developing nations, leaving the majority of wealth for the elite minority, while the majority of the populace lives in abject poverty. In the end, corruption and poor governance, combined with an abundance of accessible and valuable resources throughout the region provide ample motive for the generation of a power grab.

Corruption might as well be human nature, it has been portrayed throughout history. From back in the past, to now. For example, “23 Police Officers Fire 377 Bullets at Two Men With Zero Guns” “standing army” People that have power, either politically, or physically tend to

Corruption and money go hand in hand. Money is a motivating factor for corruption, and the transfer of money or other special benefits often finances corruption.

150). Democracy is supposed to be about equal opportunity but when bribery is brought into the balance it disrupts the scale to tip the scales into the favor of the politicians which goes against the principle of democracy (“Rise of Democracy”, para. 1). In the majority of Latin American countries there is a system called “compulsory voting” which makes it illegal not to vote. Although it is illegal not to vote, in Brazil’s case, only 78.90% of eligible voters voted for the presidential campaign in 2014 (“Voter Turnout”, para. 3). While there is a huge amount of corruption in Latin America, it can be overcome. In September of 2015, a crowd of Guatemalans chanted at President Otto Perez Molina, “Resign, now.” Their voice was heard as the ex-Guatemalan president stood down from office and is now in prison awaiting trial over an alleged corruption scandal (Watson, p.1, para. 1-3). This is just a glimpse of the power the people can hold. If the voters can get a current president out of office than imagine what can happen if everyone were to vote for who they truly believe is worthy of representing and governing the country.

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.

International Monetary Fund. 1998. Does Corruption Affect Income Inequality And Poverty?. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/wp/wp9876.pdf. [Accessed 4 March 2017].

It seems more difficult to change the regime. This is the source of corruption. When one class of society strives to better themselves and succeed in doing so, it causes corruption.

Corruption throughout the world is extensive. Corruption is defined as the twisting of integrity. A corrupt individual is an opponent of the truth; their virtues and ethics are deficient. In the United States, people in all positions of private district, public assistance, and government bureaus have been entangled in varieties of corruption. Corruption crimes include bribes, insider trading, patronage, embezzlement, electoral fraud, kickbacks, unholy alliances, conflicts of interest and several others. Corruption is a weapon that demoralizes the credibility of public

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

Humans are born with different abilities, various ambitions, values and goals. In addition, everyone is raised in their own unique environment that starts with family, school, country and society. The actual path in achieving the goal would be different as well. We should accept the fact that we all live in a competitive society. We have seen multiple examples when people cannot compete, in other words cannot achieve their goals (example- honest bidding on a contract) by going through the established process and start looking for a way around to win the job. If such a “way around” exists, it represents a corruption in terms of a bribery. Therefore, any country has a government that creates laws that forbid such activities. At the same time there is no certain definition of inequality ranging from health, talent, sex or race. Any act that goes against established laws or even ethical norms to obtain certain benefits would lead to a corruption.

Theories of corruption generally fall under two classifications i.e. demand theories and supply theories. Demand theory models of corruption include two approaches: resource-allocation models and the principal-agent relationship models (Jain, 1998). Resource-allocation models evaluate the costs of the allocation of resources to bribe-seeking activities. The model is based on the principle that bribe-seeking is one aspect of any economic activity and thus part of a firm’s resources are devoted to this pursuit (Krueger, 1974). In a competitive system, bribe-seeking chances are produced either by agents over government policy or by underlying societal features (Mauro, 1995).

Also it is interesting to note that societies who cultivate secular-rational attitudes toward authority are perceived to be less corrupt, unlike those where traditional values dominate. Relation between gender and corruption, were investigated by many researchers, most of people consider that women intrinsically are less

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).

In many developing countries, corruption is a barrier to economic growth. Corruption can prevent the fair allocation of goods and services to citizens by trickling to aspects of everyday life. On a macroeconomic level, scholars are of the belief that corruption hinders economic growth and development (Mauro, 1995).

One of the major tasks of government is to provide goods and services to the people. There are however many factors that hinder the smooth delivery of goods and services. Corruption is one of the factors. A link has been established between corruption and economic stagnation. Corruption leads to misallocation of resources meant for uplifting of the majority members of the public for the benefit of a few. It is a universal scourge that has been described differently by various schools of thought. It tends to limit citizens access to free goods and services and reduces freedom of political choice in elections. It can also be linked to the escalation of poverty, as the prevalence of corrupt practices socially excludes the poor