Some studies show that there are other external factors that promotes rent-seeking. One of these determinants is natural resources. A study covering the period 1980 to 2004 and 124 countries, found that natural resources lead to increase in corruption, especially when the democratic institution is weak (Bhattacharyya and Hodler, 2009, p. 608). This is known as the “resource course.” Instead of the state to use its natural resources to further develop and to create sustainable economy, officials in resource-rich countries tend to seek for bribery when awarding contracts. One of the most famous cases of such malpractices is the Brazil Petrobras scandal. In the $2 billion corruption scandal, 54 people were accused of taking bribes …show more content…
Meaning that the sounder a democratic institution is, the more likely it is able to hold government accountable to the public. Weak institutions are easily manipulated by those elected in office and also by firms, especially in countries with a lot of local governments. While the curse of natural resource may seem to promote corruption, it is mainly the case for a state with weak central power. States that are able to hold their officials accountable to the citizens are better able to limit corruption, thus leading to a sustainable economic and social …show more content…
“It is well known that corruption increases the likelihood that those in the private sector who are subject to regulation will neglect their legal responsibilities, including the responsibility to follow safety standards (Lagunes, 2012, p. 808). There have been many cases in which firms that are uphold to the highest safety standards have violated the safety measures after bribing regulators. These cases have resulted to loss of lives. One example of such tragic incident was the 1999 earthquake in Turkey that claimed the lives of 18,000 people, and left 200,000 civilians’ homeless (Lagunes, 2012, p. 808). Investigation following the incident revealed that the bureaucrats failed to enforce safety regulations with constructions companies after bribery. As a result, many builders practiced using low-quality materials to build houses, and it was estimated that up to 65 percent of the building in Turkey were developed without licenses (Lagunes, 2012, p.
By the mid 20th century, the scale and prominence of corruption had increased dramatically, due to the widespread transition to vast urban cities and industrialized systems. The greed and desperation that resulted from the shift towards industrialism accelerated the growth of corruption in politics. Although the shift to industry was a necessary stepping stone in the development of the modern society existing today, it was accompanied by various consequences to American society and facilitated the corruption of government officials. The exploitation of fellow
Serpico (1973) is a movie that reveals the true story of Frank Serpico who was the only honest cop in the New York police sector at his time. The film shows the realistic view of the corruption that was evidenced in the New York police and highlights the character of Frank as being honest and courageous. Although he started as an inexperienced cop, he later worked as an undercover officer and was determined to bust all the criminal activities especially the drug dealers and pushers. Unlike the other cops, Serpico refused to take any bribes from the wrongdoers. More so, he felt that the other officers were doing wrong by accepting bribes and wanted to expose the situation. The other officers were so corrupt that they collected more money through bribes than the salary they earned, a situation that did not please Serpico. His strong stand concerning corruption made his friends turn against him, placing his life in danger. The anti-corruption efforts of Serpico jeopardized his life at the hands of his colleagues. He was later transferred to the Narcotics Squad where he was shot by a drug dealer after his partners betrayed him by failing to support him. The cop was then rushed to hospital. The shooting made Frank deaf since it affected the brain, rendering
The “Noble-Cause” corruption is often compared to the Dirty Harry problem asking whether it was necessary for the officer to inflict pain on a suspect in order to acquire information that would save an innocent victim (Pollock, 2015). Sometimes because of the limited resources that an officer has or the mindset that an officer has where everyone is the enemy offers them no other choices but to venture out into the unethical world.
In the book, The Jungle, the readers comprehend a traditional American story of the tragic lives of immigrants coming to this country in search of new life, and instead finding greed and corruption. People who came into America in the time period of the late 1800’s to early 1900’s experienced a whole new world not quite what they were expecting. Living conditions and homes were not treated as well as the lower class American homes were. Wages were at an all time low with a decreased purchasing power of immigrant’s money. Everywhere they turned, someone was there waiting to cheat them. The government, political machines, and even everyday merchants on the streets treated immigrants
71). Despite the fact that the primary objective of decentralization has been rapidly obtained as cities and villages currently revel a higher level of responsibilities, the level of transparency, liability, accountability, and strong clear administrative institutions are still missing, inflicting numerous challenges to the success of the decentralization procedure and impeding the combat against corruption (Strachan, 2014a, p. 14). The facts demonstrate that implementation of decentralization has actually introduced fresh agents and actors, while altering the course of actions of corruption at local levels, elevating possibilities/incentives for the authorities to conduct affairs in a corrupted manner (Strachan, 2014a, p. 14). Local governments currently take advantage of a broad variety of discretionary proxy and superintendence over the utilization of more than 50 percent of the government budget (Hunes et al., 2014, p. 46), while incorporating over-resourcing from timber and mineral and having no appropriate inner and outer accountability arrangements in
The development of a country depends generally on the work and values of its society. The image of a country can be severely damaged by certain actions and behavior of their citizens, like bribery. When a country is known as a corrupt nation, not only will the facade of the country be affected, but also the economy. Establishing measures to eradicate corruption are urgently necessary. Corruption has been around since the begging of time, but currently is more common in business, more specifically, international business. Although some organizations have been formed, and conventions have been signed in order to end it, corruption is still one of the mayor problems around the world. An ethical view might bring more insight to why bribery and corruption is not a moral act and why more severe measures should be taken into consideration.
The runaway corruption in the country harms the business environment and causes collapse of various established institutions and industries.
An extensive review of a society’s legal system provides insight into its malfeasance. In George Orwell’s dystopian novel, 1984, and Terry Gilliam’s film, Brazil, both governments are formed on unjust systems and exercise unethical practices and extreme measures towards its subjects in an attempt to achieve compliance. Correspondingly, the article, “Their aim was to break your spirit,” describes China’s barbaric regime and its negligence of justice as a method to attain acquiescence. An examination of law and order in each of the three sources reveals corrupt systems whose sole existence relies on the obliteration of independent thought. The corruption of these governments is made apparent through their increased reliance on brutal tactics
Mining majors will go to great lengths to make profit in a developing nation and sometimes this means corruption. Corruption is when a person uses the power given to them through their job or position to make a personal gain (Rodrigez 2005). Mining companies will offer bribes or payouts to government officials in order for them to stay quite on an issue. This makes the mining company appear to be in compliance with regulations even though this is not in accordance with the citizenship principle due to the corruption involved. Mining companies use corruption as it is cheaper then fixing compliance issues that arise. The problem has become more common in Africa recently because standards have been driven down as a side effect of reforms to encourage foreign investment (Campbell 2012). Once a government official is corrupt they then ignore any issues that come about. Corruption is usually used in order to increase total profit. The issue created by corruption can be solved by regularly checking up on the mining major and using different officials. One...
According to A Report issued by the Justice Policy Institute, it showed that in 2002 the number of African American males in prison have grown to five times the rate it was twenty years ago (“Prison”). Many have speculated that reasons the population of African Americans in prison are so high is that the Justice System is corrupted and shows that Racism is alive and well. In some cases they may have been guilty, but there should never be a case were a citizen was striped from their rights and accused of a crime they didn’t commit or was protecting themselves from being killed. The Justice System is corrupted towards the African American race because they are given poor legal representation, death penalty with insufficient evidence and longer sentences than any other races that statistics can show.
Corruption in law enforcement has been a nationwide problem for many years. Not only is corruption held in one level of law enforcement, but throughout the three levels including the state, local and federal. The formation of the first police departments were the model by the early english society. The early years of policing began to contribute various forms of misconduct from police officers. Soon thereafter, Sir Robert peel established early modern policing which influenced the colonial america policing to the english society. Yet, even after following the model of other countries of law enforcement, Colonial America corruption still continued. In the mid 1800's, corruption continued to widely affect society as a whole. It was until August Vollmer, who marked the contribution of professionalism to policing, that a notable difference began to diminish corruption. Misconduct occurs at all policing levels and continues to spread worldwide. The most common types of corruption are bribes, kickbacks, shakedowns, opportunistic theft, physical abuse, protection of illegal activities and physical abuse. These types of corruption are seen throughout all levels of law enforcement. Corruption is more prominent among higher ranking officers. Not only is misconduct found among those holding higher positions, but it is also seen in rookies who are just entering law enforcement. Corruption is induced not only from individual corrupt officers or chiefs, but occurs as a result of inadequate leadership structures and administrative policies. Eliminating reducing misconduct must be done by demonstrating integrity, better organization within the policies, stricter recruitment and training.
I chose to research on the topic of why police officers engage in corruption, because it’s a problem that’s very sensitive to me. I grew up in Lagos, Nigeria and whenever I thought of a police officer, I couldn’t help but think of corruption. I always felt police officers were only corrupt in Nigeria but once I started studying the criminal justice system in the United States, I realized it’s actually a global problem; some are just more exposed than others. According to Sayed and Bruce (1998), “Police corruption is any illegal conduct or misconduct involving the use of occupational power for personal, group or organizational gain.” They also referenced the South Africa’s law in trying to define corruption. The law states that whosoever offers
Corruption can be defined as the use of entrusted power to accumulate public wealthy for personal benefit. Corruption is not peculiar to any country, continent or state; it is sure a global issue which is an endemic to all government all over the world. However, corruption is prevalent in the Niger delta region of Nigeria; public officers in this oil producing state of Nigeria are corrupt. Consequently, it has defied the Niger delta from developing politically and economically which has left the states reputation in a mess. Radicalization of youths, abject poverty and -political instability are the three leading effects of corruption in the Niger delta region of Nigeria.
The existence of bribery and unethical behavior is rampant in the world market and may not change overnight. The question of bribery has been distilled in business literature as a question of ethics. In this situation at the airport with the customs officer, it is important to distinguish between business ethics and personal ethics. In a business ethics situation, the Foreign Corruption Practices Act would prohibit offering any bribe to the custom office – for example to free a shipment of goods that was lost in red tape (Pitman & Sanford, 2006). Most companies also have policies against bribery as well. In this situation, however the main issue at hand is that of personal ethics. When in a situation where your company is unknown and there is no business being conducted, normal business ethics and laws (including FCPA) do not apply only personal ethical standards.
Montesh, M. (n.d.). Conceptualizing Corruption: Forms, Causes, Types and Consequences. Retrieved May 4, 2014, from