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in the world in 2023; a higher score indicates lower levels of corruption.
]] Corruption is a form of dishonesty or a criminal offense that is undertaken by a person or an organization that entrusted in a position of authority to acquire illicit benefits or abuse power for one's gain. Corruption may involve activities like bribery, influence peddling, embezzlement, and fraud as well as practices that are legal in many countries, such as lobbying. Political corruption occurs when an office-holder or other governmental employee acts in an official capacity for personal gain.
Historically, "corruption" had a broader meaning concerned with an activity's impact on morals and societal well-being: for example, the ancient Greek philosopher Socrates was condemned to death in part for "corrupting the young".
Contemporary corruption is perceived as most common in kleptocracies, oligarchies, , Authoritarianism, and , however, more recent research and policy statements acknowledge that it also exists in wealthy capitalist economies. In How Corrupt is Britain, David Whyte reveals that corruption exists "across a wide range of venerated institutions" in the UK, ranked as one of the least corrupt countries by the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI). In a 2022 speech on "Modern Corruption", USAID Administrator Samantha Power stated: "Corruption is no longer just about individual autocrats pilfering their nation's wealth to live large", but also involves sophisticated transnational networks, including financial institutions hidden in secrecy. Responding to Whyte's book, George Monbiot criticized the CPI for its narrow definition of corruption that surveys mostly only Western executives about bribery. Similarly, others point out that "global metrics systematically under-measure 'corruption of the rich' - which tends to be legalized, institutionalized, and ambiguously unethical - as opposed to 'corruption of the poor'".
Corruption and crime are endemic sociological occurrences that appear regularly in virtually all countries on a global scale in varying degrees and proportions. Recent data suggests corruption is on the rise. Each nation allocates domestic resources for the control and regulation of corruption and the deterrence of crime. Strategies undertaken to counter corruption are often summarized under the umbrella term anti-corruption. Additionally, global initiatives like the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 16 also have a targeted goal which is supposed to reduce corruption in all of its forms substantially. Recent initiatives like the Tax Justice Network go beyond bribery and theft and bring attention to tax abuses.
Corruption is a complex phenomenon and can occur on different scales. Corruption ranges from small favors between a small number of people (petty corruption), to corruption that affects the government on a large scale (grand corruption), and corruption that is so prevalent that it is part of the everyday structure of society, including corruption as one of the symptoms of organized crime (systemic corruption). "Corruption of the rich" is particularly hard to measure and largely excluded from conventional metrics like the CPI.
A number of indicators and tools have been developed which can measure different forms of corruption with increasing accuracy; but when those are impractical, one study suggests looking at bodyfat as a rough guide after finding that obesity of cabinet ministers in Eastern Bloc was highly correlated with more accurate measures of corruption.
Whereas corruption with theft and speed money is endemic in poor countries, access money can be found in both poor and rich countries.
The government system in many countries is divided into the legislative, executive and judicial branches in an attempt to provide independent services that are less subject to grand corruption due to their independence from one another.
Factors which encourage systemic corruption include conflicting incentives, discretion; monopoly; lack of transparency; low pay; and a culture of impunity. Specific acts of corruption include "bribery, extortion, and embezzlement" in a system where "corruption becomes the rule rather than the exception." Scholars distinguish between centralized and decentralized systemic corruption, depending on which level of state or government corruption takes place; in countries such as the post-Soviet states both types occur. Some scholars argue that there is a negative duty of western governments to protect against systematic corruption of underdeveloped governments.
Corruption has been a major issue in China, where society depends heavily on personal relationships. By the late 20th century that combined with the new lust for wealth, produced escalating corruption. Historian Keith Schoppa says that bribery was only one of the tools of Chinese corruption, which also included, "embezzlement, nepotism, smuggling, extortion, cronyism, kickbacks, deception, fraud, squandering of public money, illegal business transactions, stock manipulation and real estate fraud." Given the repeated anti-corruption campaigns it was a prudent precaution to move as much of the fraudulent money as possible overseas.R. Keith Schoppa, Revolution and Its Past: Identities and Change in Modern Chinese History (3rd ed. 2020) p . 383.
In Latin America, corruption is permitted as a result of the cultural norms of the institution. In countries like the United States, there is a relatively strong sense of trust among strangers, one that is not found in Latin American countries. In Latin American countries, this trust does not exist, whereas the social norms imply that no stranger is responsible for the wellbeing or happiness of another stranger. Instead, the trust is found in acquaintances. Acquaintances are treated with trust and respect—a level of trust that is not found among acquaintances in countries like the United States. This is what permits for corruption in Latin American countries. If there is a strong enough trust within an administration that no one will betray the rest, corruptive policies will take place with ease.Lambsdorff, Johann. The New Institutional Economics of Corruption. Routledge, 2006.
Since a high degree of monopoly and discretion accompanied by a low degree of transparency does not automatically lead to corruption, a fourth variable of "morality" or "integrity" has been introduced by others. The moral dimension has an intrinsic component and refers to a "mentality problem", and an extrinsic component referring to circumstances like poverty, inadequate remuneration, inappropriate work conditions and inoperable or over-complicated procedures which demoralize people and let them search for "alternative" solutions.
According to a 2017 survey study, the following factors have been attributed as causes of corruption:
It has been noted that in a comparison of the most corrupt with the least corrupt countries, the former group contains nations with huge socio-economic inequalities, and the latter contains nations with a high degree of social and economic justice. While petty, grand, and systemic corruption, described above, are largely found in poor countries with weak institutions, a newer literature has turned to money politics in wealthy democracies and extreme global inequalities. Simon Weschle at Syracuse University examines the prevalence of campaign finance and its consequences for democracy. Kristin Surak at the London School of Economics explores the controversial practice of millionaires buying "golden passports" with no intention of actually migrating. In her words, "a full-blown citizenship industry that thrives on global inequalities" has arisen." Much of existing literature focuses on explicit corrupt actions like bribery and embezzlement, endemic in poor countries (see below). For "money in politics," the causes are very different and largely ignored in conventional literature. For example, the UK is a developed economy with a robust democracy, and yet London is a hub for money laundering. In a critique of the failures and politics leading up to the US financial crisis, a Stanford financial economist noted, "In the real world, it turned out, important economic outcomes are often the consequences of political forces. During 2010, people within regulatory bodies told me privately that false and misleading claims were affecting key policy decisions... I saw confusion, willful blindness, political forces, various and sometimes subtle forms of corruption, and moral disengagement, first hand."
Social norms have been posited as an explanation for why some environments are corrupt and others are not.
Contemporary corruption in Africa has been linked by a book to the historical systematic use of material incentives by colonisers to compel local African rulers to collaborate. For all developing countries, the degree of European settlement in the colonial era correlates with levels of contemporary corruption.
Within less democratic countries, the presence of resources such as diamonds, gold, oil, and forestry and other extractable resources tends to increase the prevalence of corruption, also called the resource curse. The presence of fuel extraction and export is unambiguously associated with corruption, whereas mineral exports only increased corruption in poorer countries. In wealthier countries, mineral exports such as gold and diamonds are actually associated with reduced corruption.
While democratization in countries with below average democracy levels was found correlated with some increase in corruption, in countries with above average democracy indices further democratization tends to reduce corruption. A study found the increase in corruption at low democracy levels associated with and limited freedom of speech and freedom of association.
The political act of "graft" (American English), is a well known and now global form of political corruption, being the unscrupulous and illegal use of a politician's authority for personal gain, when funds intended for public projects are intentionally misdirected in order to maximize the benefits to illegally private interests of the corrupted individual(s) and their cronies. In some cases government institutions are "repurposed" or shifted away from their official mandate to serve other, often corrupt purposes.Ivor Chipkin and Swilling, Mark, 2018, Shadow State: the Politics of State Capture, Johannesburg: Wits University Press
The Kaunas golden toilet case was a major Lithuanian scandal. In 2009, the municipality of Kaunas (led by mayor Andrius Kupčinskas) ordered that a shipping container was to be converted into an outdoor toilet at a cost of 500,000 litas (around 150,000 euros). It was to also require 5,000 litai (1,500 euros) in monthly maintenance costs. At the same time when Kaunas's "Golden Toilet" was built, Kėdainiai tennis club acquired a very similar, but more advanced solution for 4,500 euros. Because of the inflated cost of the outdoor toilet, it was nicknamed the "Golden Toilet". Despite the investment, the "Golden Toilet" remained closed for years due to the dysfunctionality and was a subject of a lengthy anti-corruption investigation into those who had created it and the local municipality even considered demolishing the building at one point. The group of public servants involved in the toilet's procurement received various prison sentences for recklessness, malfeasance, misuse of power and document falsifications in a 2012 court case, but were cleared of their corruption charges and received compensation, which pushed the total construction cost and subsequent related financial losses to 352,000 euros.
On 7 July 2020, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a global think tank, released a report claiming the Emirati city, Dubai, of being an enabler of global corruption, crime and illicit financial flows. It stated that the global corrupt and criminal actors either operated through or from Dubai. The city was also called a haven for trade-based money laundering, as it gives space to free trade zones, with minimal regulatory laws and customs enforcement.
A report in September 2022 revealed that British Members of Parliament received a total of £828,211 over a period of eight years from countries of the Saudi-led coalition in the Yemeni Civil War. The money was granted in the form of all-expenses-paid trips to 96 MPs by Saudi Arabia (at least £319,406), Bahrain (£197,985), the United Arab Emirates (£187,251), Egypt (£66,695) and Kuwait (£56,872). MPs also received gifts, including a £500 food hamper, tickets for a Burns Supper, an expensive watch and a day out at the Royal Windsor Horse Show. The Saudi-led coalition was accused of attempting to buy influence in the UK. While the MPs registered the trips and gifts at Westminster as per the rules, critics called it "absolutely shameful" to accept donations from countries with poor human rights records.
In 2022, four people were arrested for corruption in the European Parliament. This came to be known as the Qatar corruption scandal at the European Parliament. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the allegations were "very serious" and called for the creation of a new ethics body to oversee the European Union.
Governmental corruption of the judiciary is broadly known in many transitional and developing countries because the budget is almost completely controlled by the executive. The latter critically undermines the separation of powers, because it fosters financial dependence on the judiciary. The proper distribution of a nation's wealth, including its government's spending on the judiciary, is subject to constitutional economics.
The judiciary may be corrupted by acts of the government, such as through budget planning and various privileges, and by private acts. Corruption in judiciary may also involve the government using its judicial arm to oppress opposition parties. Judicial corruption is difficult to completely eradicate, even in developed countries.
Another example of military corruption, is a military officer or officers using the power of their positions to commit activities that are illegal, such as skimming logistical supplies such as food, medicine, fuel, body armor or weapons to sell on the local black market. There have also been instances of military officials, providing equipment and combat support to Organized crime, private military companies and Terrorism, without approval from their superiors. As a result, many countries have a Military police to ensure that the military officers follow the laws and conduct of their respective countries but sometimes the military police have levels of corruption themselves.
The presence or perception of corruption also undermines environmental initiatives. In Kenya, farmers blame poor agricultural productivity on corruption, and thus are less likely to undertake soil conservation measures to prevent soil erosion and loss of nutrients. In Benin, mistrust of government due to perceived corruption led small farmers to reject the adaptation of measures to combat climate change.
Another example is police officers flouting the police code of conduct in order to secure convictions of suspects—for example, through the use of surveillance abuse, false confessions, police perjury and/or falsified evidence. Police officers have also been known to sell forms of contraband that were taken during seizures (such as confiscated drugs, stolen property or weapons). Corruption and misconduct can also be done by prison officers, such as the smuggling of contraband (such as drugs or electronics) into jails and prisons for Prisoner or the Prisoner abuse. Another form of misconduct is probation officers taking bribes in exchange for allowing parolees to violate the terms of their probation or abusing their paroles. More rarely, police officers may deliberately and systematically participate in organized crime themselves, either while on the job or during off hours. In most major cities, there are internal affairs sections to investigate suspected police corruption or misconduct. Similar entities include the British Independent Police Complaints Commission.
Endemic corruption in educational institutions leads to the formation of sustainable corrupt hierarchies. Osipian, Ararat. (2013). Corrupt Organizations: Modeling Educators' Misconduct with Cellular Automata. Computational & Mathematical Organization Theory, 19(1), pp. 1–24 . Osipian, Ararat. (2009). Corruption Hierarchies in Higher Education in the Former Soviet Bloc. International Journal of Educational Development, 29(3), pp. 321–30 . Osipian, Ararat. (2010). Corrupt Organizational Hierarchies in the Former Soviet Bloc. Transition Studies Review, 17(4), pp. 822–36 . While higher education in Russia is distinct with widespread bribery, corruption in the US and the UK features a significant amount of fraud. Osipian, Ararat. (2014). Will Bribery and Fraud Converge? Comparative Corruption in Higher Education in Russia and the USA. Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education, 44(2), pp. 252–73 . Osipian, Ararat. (2008). Corruption in Higher Education: Does it Differ Across the Nations and Why? Research in Comparative and International Education, 3(4), pp. 345–65 . The US is distinct with grey areas and institutional corruption in the higher education sector. Osipian, Ararat. (2012). Grey Areas in the Higher Education Sector: Legality versus Corruptibility. Brigham Young University Education and Law Journal, 1(1), pp. 140–90 . Osipian, Ararat. (2009). Investigating Corruption in American Higher Education: The Methodology. FedUni Journal of Higher Education, 4(2), pp. 49–81 . Authoritarian regimes, including those in former Soviet republics, encourage educational corruption and control universities, especially during the election campaigns. Osipian, Ararat. (2010). Corruption in the Politicized University: Lessons for Ukraine's 2010 Presidential Elections. Innovation: The European Journal of Social Science Research, 23(2), pp. 101–14 . This is typical for Russia, Osipian, Ararat. (2012). Loyalty as Rent: Corruption and Politicization of Russian Universities. International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, 32(3/4), pp. 153–67 . Ukraine, Osipian, Ararat. (2008). Political Graft and Education Corruption in Ukraine: Compliance, Collusion, and Control. Demokratizatsiya: The Journal of Post-Soviet Democratization, 16(4), pp. 323–44 . and Central Asian regimes, Osipian, Ararat. (2009). “Feed from the Service”: Corruption and Coercion in the State—University Relations in Central Eurasia. Research in Comparative and International Education, 4(2), pp. 182–203 . among others. The general public is well aware of the high level of corruption in colleges and universities, including thanks to the media. Osipian, Ararat. (2012). Who is Guilty and What to Do? Popular Opinion and Public Discourse of Corruption in Russian Higher Education. Canadian and International Education Journal, 41(1), pp. 81–95 . Osipian, Ararat. (2007). Higher Education Corruption in Ukraine: Opinions and Estimates. International Higher Education, 49, pp. 20–21 . Doctoral education is no exception, with dissertations and doctoral degrees available for sale, including for politicians. Osipian, Ararat. (2012). Economics of Corruption in Doctoral Education: The Dissertations Market. Economics of Education Review, 31(1), pp. 76–83 . Russian Parliament is notorious for "highly educated" MPs Osipian, Ararat. (2010). Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme: Political Corruption of Russian Doctorates. Demokratizatsiya: The Journal of Post-Soviet Democratization, 18(3), pp. 260–80 . High levels of corruption are a result of universities not being able to break away from their Stalinist past, over bureaucratization, Osipian, Ararat. (2014). Transforming University Governance in Ukraine: Collegiums, Bureaucracies, and Political Institutions. Higher Education Policy, 27(1), pp. 65–84 . and a clear lack of university autonomy. Osipian, Ararat. (2008). Corruption and Coercion: University Autonomy versus State Control. European Education: Issues and Studies, 40(3), pp. 27–48 . Both quantitative and qualitative methodologies are employed to study education corruption,O sipian, Ararat. (2007). Corruption in Higher Education: Conceptual Approaches and Measurement Techniques. Research in Comparative and International Education, 2(4), pp. 313–32 . but the topic remains largely unattended by the scholars. In many societies and international organizations, education corruption remains a taboo. In some countries, such as certain eastern European countries, some Balkan countries and certain Asian countries, corruption occurs frequently in universities.Heyneman, S. P., Anderson, K. H. and Nuraliyeva, N. (2008). The cost of corruption in higher education. Comparative Education Review, 51, 1–25. This can include bribes to bypass bureaucratic procedures and bribing faculty for a grade.Graeff, P., Sattler, S., Mehlkop, G. and Sauer, C. (2014). "Incentives and Inhibitors of Abusing Academic Positions: Analysing University Students' Decisions about Bribing Academic Staff" In: European Sociological Review 30(2) 230–41. 10.1093/esr/jct036 The willingness to engage in corruption such as accepting bribe money in exchange for grades decreases if individuals perceive such behavior as very objectionable, i.e. a violation of social norms and if they fear sanctions regarding the severity and probability of sanctions.
Corruption in health care poses a significant danger to public welfare. It is widespread, yet little has been published in medical journals about this topic. As of 2019, there is no evidence on what might reduce corruption in the health sector. Corruption occurs within the private and public health sectors and may appear as theft, embezzlement, nepotism, bribery up until extortion, or undue influence. It can occur anywhere within the sector, be it in service provision, purchasing, construction, and hiring. In 2019, Transparency International described the 6 most common ways of service corruption as follows: absenteeism, informal payments from patients, embezzlement, inflating services also the costs of services, favoritism, and manipulation of data (billing for goods and services that were never sent or done).
42 individuals, including Jean-Christophe Mitterrand, Jacques Attali, Charles Pasqua and Jean-Charles Marchiani, Pierre Falcone. Arcadi Gaydamak, Paul-Loup Sulitzer, Union for a Popular Movement deputy Georges Fenech, the son of François Mitterrand and a former French Minister of the Interior, were charged, accused, indicted or convicted with illegal arms trading, tax fraud, embezzlement, money laundering, and other crimes.
In 2015, Princeton University professor Kevin M. Kruse advances the thesis that business leaders in the 1930s and 1940s collaborated with clergymen, including James W. Fifield Jr., in order to develop and promote a new hermeneutical approach to Scripture which would de-emphasize the social Gospel and emphasize themes, such as individual salvation, which were more congenial to free enterprise.Kevin M. Kruse, One Nation Under God: How Corporate America Invented Christian America (2015), p. 7.
Bribery can sometimes form a part of the systemic use of corruption for other ends, for example to perpetrate further corruption. Bribery can make officials more susceptible to blackmail or to extortion.
Examples include the misdirection of company funds into "shadow companies" (and then into the pockets of corrupt employees), the skimming of foreign aid money, scams, electoral fraud and other corrupt activity.
This includes such behavior as an influential person threatening to go to the media if they do not receive speedy medical treatment (at the expense of other patients), threatening a public official with exposure of their secrets if they do not vote in a particular manner, or demanding money in exchange for continued secrecy. Another example can be a police officer being with the loss of their job by their superiors, if they continued with investigating a high-ranking official.
State capture is not necessarily illegal, depending on determination by the captured state itself, and may be attempted through lobbying and advocacy. The influence may be through a range of state institutions, including the legislature, executive, ministries, and the judiciary, or through a corrupt electoral process. It is similar to regulatory capture but differs in the scale and variety of influenced areas and, unlike regulatory capture, the private influence is never overt.
Belgium: bribe payments are generally tax deductible as business expenses if the name and address of the beneficiary is disclosed. Under the following conditions kickbacks in connection with exports abroad are permitted for deduction even without proof of the receiver:
Denmark: bribe payments are deductible when a clear operational context exists and its adequacy is maintained.
France: basically all operating expenses can be deducted. However, staff costs must correspond to an actual work done and must not be excessive compared to the operational significance. This also applies to payments to foreign parties. Here, the receiver shall specify the name and address, unless the total amount in payments per beneficiary does not exceed 500 FF. If the receiver is not disclosed the payments are considered "rémunérations occult" and are associated with the following disadvantages:
Japan: in Japan, bribes are deductible as business expenses that are justified by the operation (of the company) if the name and address of the recipient is specified. This also applies to payments to foreigners. If the indication of the name is refused, the expenses claimed are not recognized as operating expenses.
Canada: there is no general rule on the deductibility or non-deductibility of kickbacks and bribes. Hence the rule is that necessary expenses for obtaining the income (contract) are deductible. Payments to members of the public service and domestic administration of justice, to officers and employees and those charged with the collection of fees, entrance fees etc. for the purpose to entice the recipient to the violation of his official duties, can not be abated as business expenses as well as illegal payments according to the Criminal Code.
Luxembourg: bribes, justified by the operation (of a company) are deductible as business expenses. However, the tax authorities may require that the payer is to designate the receiver by name. If not, the expenses are not recognized as operating expenses.
Netherlands: all expenses that are directly or closely related to the business are deductible. This also applies to expenditure outside the actual business operations if they are considered beneficial to the operation for good reasons by the management. What counts is the good merchant custom. Neither the law nor the administration is authorized to determine which expenses are not operationally justified and therefore not deductible. For the business expense deduction it is not a requirement that the recipient is specified. It is sufficient to elucidate to the satisfaction of the tax authorities that the payments are in the interest of the operation.
Austria: bribes justified by the operation (of a company) are deductible as business expenses. However, the tax authority may require that the payer names the recipient of the deducted payments exactly. If the indication of the name is denied e.g. because of business comity, the expenses claimed are not recognized as operating expenses. This principle also applies to payments to foreigners.
Switzerland: bribe payments are tax deductible if it is clearly operation initiated and the consignee is indicated.
US: (rough résumé: "generally operational expenses are deductible if they are not illegal according to the FCPA")
UK: kickbacks and bribes are deductible if they have been paid for operating purposes. The tax authority may request the name and address of the recipient.
Particularly, the non-disclosure of the bribe money recipients' name in tax declarations had been a powerful instrument for Legal Corruption during the 1990s for German corporations, enabling them to block foreign legal jurisdictions which intended to fight corruption in their countries. Hence, they uncontrolled established a strong network of clientelism around Europe (e.g. SIEMENS) along with the formation of the European Single Market in the upcoming European Union and the Eurozone. Moreover, in order to further strengthen active corruption the prosecution of tax evasion during that decade had been severely limited. German tax authorities were instructed to refuse any disclosure of bribe recipients' names from tax declarations to the German criminal prosecution.Transparency International: "Geschützt durch das Steuergeheimnis dürfen die Steuerbehörden Hinweise auf Korruption nicht an die Staatsanwaltschaft melden." As a result, German corporations have been systematically increasing their informal economy from 1980 until today up to 350 bn € per annum (see diagram on the right), thus continuously feeding their black money reserves.
During the judicial proceedings it was disclosed that numerous such black accounts had been established in the past decades.
The Global Corruption Index (GCI), designed by the Global Risk Profile to be in line with anti-corruption and anti-bribery legislation, covers 196 countries and territories. It measures the state of corruption and white-collar crimes around the world, specifically money laundering and terrorism financing.
Absence of corruption is one of the eight factors the World Justice Project Rule of Law Index measures to evaluate adherence to the rule of law in 140 countries and jurisdictions around the globe. The annual index measures three forms of government corruption across the executive branch, the judiciary, the military and police, and the legislature: bribery, improper influence by public or private interests, and misappropriation of public funds or other resources.
The Unbundled Corruption Index (UCI) measures perceived levels of corruption in four categories: petty theft, grand theft, speed money, access money. It uses "stylized vignettes" instead of broadly worded survey questions.
Corruption can negatively impact the economy both directly, through for example tax evasion and money laundering, as well as indirectly by distorting fair competition and fair markets, and by increasing the cost of doing business. It is strongly negatively associated with the share of private investment and, hence, lowers the economic growth rate.Mo, P.H. (2001). Corruption and Economic Growth. Journal of Comparative Economics, 29, 66–79.
Corruption reduces the returns of productive activities. If the production returns fall faster than the returns to corruption and rent-seeking activities, resources will flow from productive activities to corruption activities over time. This will result in a lower stock of producible inputs like human capital in corrupted countries.
Corruption creates the opportunity for increased inequality, reduces the return of productive activities, and, hence, makes rent-seeking and corruption activities more attractive. This opportunity for increased inequality not only generates psychological frustration for the underprivileged but also reduces productivity growth, investment, and job opportunities.
Some experts have suggested that corruption stimulated economic growth in East and Southeast Asian countries. An often-cited example is South Korea, where President Park Chung Hee favored a small number of companies, and later used this financial influence to pressure these to follow the government's development strategy. This 'profit-sharing' corruption model incentivizes government officials to support economic development, as they would personally benefit financially from it.
One neglected example of high growth with corruption is the American Gilded Age, which Yuen Yuen Ang has compared to China's Gilded Age. In both, she noted, "corruption evolved over time from thuggery and theft to more sophisticated exchanges of power and profit," and resultingly, both saw unequal and risky growth. Biased narratives about Western development and global corruption metrics have obscured this historical pattern.
As early as 1989 the OECD had established an ad hoc Working Group in order to explore "the concepts fundamental to the offense of corruption, and the exercise of national jurisdiction over offenses committed wholly or partially abroad." Based on the FCPA concept, the Working Group presented in 1994 the then "OECD Anti-Bribery Recommendation" as precursor for the OECD Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions which was signed in 1997 by all member countries and came finally into force in 1999. However, because of ongoing concealed corruption in international transactions several instruments of Country Monitoring have been developed since then by the OECD in order to foster and evaluate related national activities in combating foreign corrupt practices. One survey shows that after the implementation of heightened review of multinational firms under the convention in 2010 firms from countries that had signed the convention were less likely to use bribery.
In 2013, a document produced by the economic and private sector professional evidence and applied knowledge services help-desk discusses some of the existing practices on anti-corruption. They found:
In recent years, anti-corruption efforts have also been criticised for overemphasising the benefits of the eradication of corruption for economic growth and development,Kuipers, S. (2021), "Rethinking anti-corruption efforts in international development", Journal of Financial Crime, Vol. ahead-of-print No. ahead-of-print. .Rodrik, D. (2008), "Second-Best Institutions", American Economic Review: Paper & Proceedings. Vol. 98, No. 2, pp. 100-104.Rodrik, D. (2014), "An African Growth Miracle?", working paper No. 20188, National Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge, MA, JuneMarquette, H. and Peiffer, C. (2018), "Grappling with the 'real politics' of systemic corruption: Theoretical debates versus 'real-world' functions", Governance Vol. 31, No. 3, pp. 499-514. following a diversity of literature which has suggested that anti-corruption efforts, the right kind of institutions and "good governance"
Acemoglu, D. and Robinson, J. A. (2012). Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity and Poverty, Crown Business Publishing, New York. This criticism is based on the observed fact that a variety of countries, such as Korea and China but also the US in the 19th and early 20th century, saw high economic growth and broader socio-economic development coinciding with significant corruption.Ang, Y. Y. (2020). China's Gilded Age: The Paradox of Economic Boom and Vast Corruption, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK.Kang, D.C. (Winter 2002), "Bad Loans to Good Friends: Money Politics and the Developmental State in South Korea", International Organization, Vol. 56, No. 1, pp. 177–207. .
Films about corruption include Runaway Jury, The Firm, Syriana, The Constant Gardener, and All the President's Men.
The New Testament, in keeping with the tradition of Ancient Greek thought, also frankly acknowledges the corruption of the world (ὁ )2 Peter 1:4, 2:20. and claims to offer a way of keeping the spirit "unspotted from the world."James 1:27. Paul of Tarsus acknowledges his readers must inevitably "deal with the world,"1 Cor 7:31. and recommends they adopt an attitude of "as if not" in all their dealings. When they buy a thing, for example, they should relate to it "as if it were not theirs to keep."1 Cor 7:30. New Testament readers are advised to refuse to "conform to the present age"Romans 12:2. and not to be ashamed to be peculiar or singular.1 Peter 2:9. They are advised not be friends of the corrupt world, because "friendship with the world is enmity with God."James 4:4. They are advised not to love the corrupt world or the things of the world.1 John 2:15. The rulers of this world, Paul explains, "are coming to nothing"1 Cor 2:6. While readers must obey corrupt rulers in order to live in the world,Romans 13:1. the spirit is subject to no law but to love God and love our neighbors as ourselves.Romans 13:8. New Testament readers are advised to adopt a disposition in which they are "in the world, but not of the world."Andrew L. Fitz-Gibbon, In the World But Not of the World: Christian Social Thinking at the End of the Twentieth Century (2000), See also John 15:19. This disposition, Paul claims, shows us a way to escape "slavery to corruption" and experience the freedom and glory of being innocent "children of God".Roman 8:21.
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