Introduction
Corruption is the abuse or misuse of public resources, power and or office for financial or other personal gains. It is the use of illegal and illegitimate means to acquire advantage in private or public positions. Corrupt people lack the virtues of integrity, honesty and moral principle.
Corruption has greatly increased in the world since the late 80s and the early 90s with many post-communist countries being greatly affected. There has been a lot of debate on the causes of corruption and factors that have led to its spread and increase around the world.
Factors contributing to corruption
Neo-liberalism and corruption
One of the major factors that contributed to the apparent rise and spread of corruption and which is a subject of debate is neo-liberalism which started in the 1970s and the 1980s. Neo-liberalism is mainly about promoting free markets and trade, competition, consumption, reduction state regulation, control and other roles, more importance is placed on the end than the means.
There is lack of conceptuality and less emphasis on the rule of law in most corrupt societies where the process of liberalization has led to the weakening and delegitimizing of state powers and control. There have been many arguments about the relationship between neo-liberal measures and policies of free trade and investment and corruption especially in post-communist countries (Holmes, 1999).
Neo-liberalism has been highly credited with economic growth and increased investment; it is seen as an important factor for development in many countries.
However as globalization takes effect and local and international enterprises compete for new markets and business ventures, corruption practices are inevitable. There are restrictions, obstacles and barriers within bureaucratic systems of countries and international markets that can lead to these practices.
International quarters and trade tariffs which lead to varying prices of goods and other special treatments can lead to enterprises bribing in order to take advantage.
According to Williams and Beare (1999), the administration of exemptions and restrictions within countries involves complex and complicated procedures and only bureaucracies can perform such duties as a result this can encourage corruption practices in government offices.
Although there are organizations and agencies which act as watch dogs, without regulation and follow up, a lot can still be done to reduce the spread of this vice. The systems of corruption form a big web which includes local and international participants and it is hard to completely trace its course especially in developing countries, where efforts of fighting corruption are underfunded and not taken seriously.
Poverty
Another factor that leads to corruption in most developing economies is poverty. The prevalence of poverty leads to lack of education, health and other basic necessities. This means that poor people do not have knowledge of their rights they are not aware of the responsibilities of the authorities.
Most of them are apathetic toward economic and social developments in their countries because they have to first deal with their own domestic challenges.
In many communities where public infrastructure and service delivery is extremely poor, mushrooming of the private enterprise leads to the exploitation of the meager resources of the poor as they seek better services especially in the health and education sectors. For example a doctor in a public health center receives salary every end of the month but only comes on appointment because he has his own private clinic (Das, 2006).
Most corrupt practices in poor countries take place without anyone reporting, either because nobody realizes it happening or people have the will to stop it but they are not strong enough to face the forces behind the vice.
Conclusion
The debate on the factors that lead to corruption and the ways through which it can be controlled continue across the world.
Measures that have been taken include controlling of the flow of foreign investment and the reduction or complete withdrawal of aid from developing countries that have corrupt systems. National and International media together with monitoring agencies like Transparency International have also played a big role on exposing corruption.
Reference List
Das, R. (2006) Poverty and hunger: causes and consequences. New Delhi: Sarup and Sons.
Holmes, L. (1999) ‘Corruption, weak states and economic rationalism in Central and Eastern Europe’, Central European University Joint Conference on Corruption. Princeton University, Budapest, Hungary. Web.
Williams, J. and Beare, M. (1999) The business of bribery: globalization, economic liberalization and the “problem” of corruption’, crime, law and social change. New York, NY: Taylor and Francis.