Corruption as state -corporate crime: the example of the health sector in Greece

Abstract

The study analyses the relations and processes underpinning grand corruption in the health sector in Greece. Viewed from a systemic-structural perspective, corruption is examined as a phenomenon emerging from the interactions and interconnections between the organized structures of venture capital and the state apparatus. Applying an integrated theoretical model of state-corporate crime and drawing on extensive empirical qualitative research, this paper traces the processes of normalization and institutionalization of corruption within the context of social networks and organizations. It is argued that corruption is not a deviant response to a normal system but a normal response to a system fostering illicit practice in accordance with capitalist ethos, profiteering, and the distribution of economic resources. In this wide political economy context, existing power relations and structures within the health sector are being reproduced.