Root Causes of Political, Administrative, and Economic Corruption: An Analytical Study

An Analytical Study

Abstract

"The phenomenon of corruption is one of the perennial issues that has occupied a significant space throughout human history, tracing back to the political literature of thinkers such as Plato and Aristotle concerning the corruption of governments and constitutions, and culminating in modern scientific studies. It began to assume a prominent place in global politics during the first and second decades of the twenty-first century, as it is one of the phenomena that has caused, and continues to cause, numerous economic, social, administrative, and crises at both the domestic and international levels of states. Consequently, national institutions and specialized international organizations dedicated to combating corruption—such as Transparency International—have emerged, international conventions and treaties to combat corruption have been ratified, and the World Bank has established anti-corruption efforts as one of its top priorities for the coming years.

Corruption fundamentally denotes a behavioral norm that has deviated from its original standard, its primordial purity, or what is righteous. It entails conduct that violates the official duties of a public office for the sake of securing private gains. Corrupt acts are those that breach specific legal rules governing the manner in which public duties ought to be performed, and corrupt behavior is that which threatens the public interest and inflicts harm upon it. Accordingly, the methods and types of corruption vary, including bribery (in its various forms, such as payment to secure a government benefit, payment to evade governmental costs like taxes, or payment to secure official positions), nepotism, favoritism, embezzlement, forgery, and extortion.

The types and levels of corruption have been classified according to specific criteria, among which are categories based on the scale and level of the actors involved, such as presidential corruption—associated with the highest offices of the state, such as the president or equivalent—legislative hegemony corruption (parliamentary corruption), executive branch corruption, and corruption associated with political parties. Additionally, there are types of corruption categorized by the criterion of prevalence and extent, such as individual and episodic corruption, institutional corruption, and systemic or entrenched corruption."