Corruption is a broad concept spanning multiple disciplines and is a highly interconnected phenomenon affecting all areas of human society. It is the manifestation of failed governance. Multiple definitions of corruption have been coined, but when they are aggregated, they sound familiar: (i) unlawful use of official power to enrich oneself usually at the expense of others; (ii) when someone knows better but chooses the worse option; and (iii) when someone acquires something to which he or she are not entitled. To encapsulate those into one systematic definition, corruption is when someone does something they are not supposed to for personal gain, usually at another’s expense.
When something is a corrupt act: (i) it is an illegal, secret, or informal exchange of formally allocated resources; (ii) at least one corrupt party is formally involved with the entity from which resources (broadly defined) are extracted; and (iii) the corrupt act is against formal rules, laws, or policies. Corruption is not a universal constant and varies significantly in severity and manifestation by culture and community and dozens of other factors.
According to Transparency International, a leading anti-corruption organization, corruption is the abuse of entrusted power for private gain, with the implication that it is the abuse of political power for private gain. For that reason, corruption is often used synonymously with political corruption. The two are not the same, and the distinction is important, although political corruption is the most pervasive & impactful form of corruption. Political corruption is the accumulative effects - realized or perceived - of corrupt acts undertaken by political actors that undermine effective governance & reduce trust in the government among its constituents. All other actors include regular citizens, civil society, or any other non-state group. The corruption involving this category (society or sociocultural) can be considered social corruption or just crime. Political corruption is also a crime, but the word scandal is used to connotate a political crime or corrupt act in government by political actors.
Petty corruption is a local form among ordinary citizens in their day-to-day lives and can include small-scale tax fraud, bribes to get out of a ticket or preferential treatment, among many more. This form of corruption is perpetuated by the citizenry & the local government, and it is the most common, especially in societies with endemic corruption. Crime is a form of petty corruption and can also expand into the realm of grand corruption when organized or corporate. Grand corruption involves influential people & large sums of money who are usually part of national political parties or large corporations.
Taking these four types of corruption together, a corrupt act can be defined according to two dimensions - scale & sector. Scale includes the size or impact of the corrupt act and its pervasiveness throughout society - petty to grand corruption. Sector describes the location of that corruption - political or social. Since corruption virtually always includes social & political actors and motivations, the sector is also the sociopolitical spectrum of corruption. Corruption might be primarily political or social in nature but usually is a mix involving social & political actors.
Endemic corruption is a cultural acceptance of at least some forms of corruption as part of the normal functioning of society or political systems. It correlates strongly to other chronic issues within international development, namely poverty, health insecurity, and income inequality. The degree of endemic corruption measures the long-term effect of corruption and the accumulation of corrupt acts in a society and its political systems.
Corrupt acts can be split into two categories, favoritism & rent-seeking behavior, which are not mutually exclusive. Favoritism is granting unfair treatment to benefit individuals based on their membership in an ethnic, religious, cultural, political, or social group rather than merit and usually to the detriment of another. It can be broken down further. Cronyism is the preferential treatment to one’s partner, friends, or colleagues. In endemically corrupt societies, a kleptocracy (e.g., Russia) is likely to emerge from rampant favoritism. Nepotism is favoritism to one’s immediate family & relatives. Favoritism’s counterpart is discrimination - when an individual or group is actively unfavored, disillusioned, or disadvantaged by another group for their benefit or spite & hatred. The difference between favoritism and discrimination is the motivation—to benefit one’s group or harm another.
Rent-seeking—regardless of success—is any behavior that aims to increase personal wealth or power. Depending on the type of corruption, rent-seeking behavior can be tax evasion, fraud of any kind, bribery, extortion, exchange-of-favors, money laundering, embezzlement, over-invoicing, cheating, & the general misappropriation of resources. Since rent-seeking so closely mirrors the definition of corruption itself, they are frequently used interchangeably. An actor undertakes rent-seeking behavior, attempting the corrupt act itself. Corruption is the general context and pattern of corrupt acts in society or government. One act does not constitute corruption—many acts perpetrated by many people do—similar to how a single criminal act differs from the prevalence of crime in an area. Patronage is also a rent-seeking behavior when non-politicians bribe or seek an appointment in exchange for helping politicians. Acts like collusion (petty) and a kleptocracy (grand) involve multiple parties trying to benefit each other but still at the expense of another, usually average citizens.
What might “look like corruption to outside observers might serve crucial social and symbolic functions from the inside or in a local context”. A population that views their government as corrupt is more likely to evade paying taxes, a corrupt act in and of itself, but not considered one by society. Likewise, those citizens might view taxes as support for corrupt governments. Ultimately, corruption is “what every society decides it is; it simply has to be internally consistent with formal institutions of a given society”. Corruption is highly contextual, differing wildly across unique cases & various cultural lens.
The common theme across the literature is that the causes of corruption are structural. Corruption is anything a human does to enrich themselves at the expense of the government’s efficiency; an individual goes against the rules and structure of the system for personal reasons. Poorly structured & weak social, political, governance, or economic systems act as “opportunity structures to conduct corrupt practices”. Thus, corruption requires three conditions to arise and persist: (i) discretionary power or authority among relevant people; (ii) the incentives to be corrupt; and (iii) weak institutional systems, which make it easier for corruption to happen and persist. Corruption can, therefore, be used as a tool to identify—and fix—weak systems, as a “high level of corruption indicates that something is wrong with the state’s underlying institutions…[signaling] a need for structural reform – not just more vigorous law enforcement” which in turn would help to reduce corruption. Restructuring the system of government & its institutions through structural reform to disincentivize rent-seeking behavior and the likelihood of corrupt acts is the broad goal of successful anti-corruption efforts.
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