Nature Of Corruption Research Articles

Interrogating the interface between governance and corruption: The Nigerian experience

This work “Interrogating the Interface between Governance and Corruption: The Nigerian Experience”, is centred on the relationship between governance and corruption in Nigeria and how it has inhibited good governance in Nigeria. It sought to ascertain the nature, effect and perception of governance and corruption in Nigeria. It adopted the elite theory to explain the control and dominance of the political space by the political elite. The study relied on qualitative content analysis for the analyses of data. As part of the findings of the study, there is an interface between governance and corruption with the former creating a platform for the latter to strive. That corruption is most times driven by primordial sentiment which is traceable to the multi-ethnic nature of the country, where those with the responsibility to govern give their allegiance to their ethnic groups and tribes instead of the nation. It is also discernible from the study that legislations that invoke capital punishment are required to deter potential corrupt officials. To guarantee a formidable and efficient anti-corruption agencies they (anti-corruption agencies) should be made independent through legislations.

ПРАВОВІ АСПЕКТИ ЗАПОБІГАННЯ ТА ПРОТИДІЇ ПОЛІТИЧНІЙ КОРУПЦІЇ В УКРАЇНІ

The purpose of the article is to comprehensively study political corruption as a phenomenon of social life in terms of legal aspects of its prevention and counteraction. The content of the publication is determined by the specifics of the subject of research and reflects the interdisciplinary approach to the disclosure of the topic. The article presents a comprehensive study of political, managerial and legal aspects of understanding political corruption. Emphasis is placed on the essence (nature) of political corruption as a phenomenon of the political process, and therefore - on the lack of a common conceptual understanding of the concept of "political corruption". It is emphasized that the concepts of "corruption" and "political corruption" are not identical in content or legal characteristics. The political aspect of corruption is an insufficient basis for extending the legal signs of corruption to actions that have signs of political corruption. It is argued that the task of legal science is to identify the causes, establish the preconditions and find the most effective measures to prevent and specify the means of combating political corruption. It is established that, unlike corrupt acts, types of behavior in the field of political corruption are not covered by legal liability measures. This is due to the lack of legal definition of "political corruption" in the current legislation. However, within the framework of normative regulation of relations in the field of state funding of political parties, a legal mechanism for preventing political corruption in Ukraine has been formed and operates. This led to the conclusion that due to the establishment of requirements and restrictions on the financing of political parties, the introduction of transparency and accountability of political parties and election campaigns, the legislator launched state control over the finances of political parties represented by the National Agency for Prevention of Corruption and to administrative or criminal liability for the relevant offenses. In view of this, emphasis is placed on the importance of understanding the legal aspects of political corruption, influencing political parties through finances, strengthening the financial discipline of political parties, improving the system of state control over the financing of political parties, and ensuring responsibility for violations in political financing. The scientific novelty of the article is the legal analysis of actions in the field of political corruption in terms of the introduction of legal mechanisms to prevent its manifestations. The practical significance of the article is related to the possibility of further use of its materials in the educational process, conducting interdisciplinary research on the phenomenon of political corruption and forming proposals for improving the legislative mechanisms of state control over the financial activities of political parties.

К вопросу о детерминации коррупции в ОВД России

The article highlights issues related to the identification and neutralization of the causes and conditions of such a negative social phenomenon as corruption in the police department. A deep criminological analysis of the factors determining corruption in the internal affairs bodies of Russia through the prism of the concept of socio-psychological causality is given. The author considers all the variety of conditions that give rise to the selfish motivation of corrupt police officers, as well as their professional deformation against the background of existing contradictions in the social environment and deformations of moral consciousness and legal consciousness. Particular attention is paid to the personality of a criminal who commits corruption crimes in this area. The author analyzes the determinative relationship between economic, social, moral and psychological factors and the formation of the criminogenic orientation of the personality of a corrupt officer of the Internal Affairs Directorate. The moral and psychological properties of the personality of the police officer who committed corrupt behavior are considered as the main factor that determines it. At the same time, conditions are investigated that facilitate the implementation of the criminal intentions of the corrupt nature of the police officers, which in some cases also act as conditions conducive to the criminogenic orientation of their personality.

A Corpus-based Transitivity Analysis of Nilopher’s Character in The Stone Woman

The present study focuses on the use of transitivity as a tool to explore characterization. Transitivity works as a tool to analyze the depiction of people's actions at a broader level (Halliday, 1994). A significant number of studies have been done using the system of transitivity in understanding the narratives to highlight the ideological function of language (Rashid, 2016). The objective of the current study is to use the device of transitivity in highlighting the character of Nilopher in the novel "The Stone Woman". The corpus of the novel has been tagged using Stanford Log-linear Parts of Speech (POS) tagger and the list of verbs has been extracted. Each verb has been marked with its respective process 'material', 'mental', 'behavioral', 'verbal', 'relational' or 'existential'. After it, each verb has been analyzed in its particular clause using concordance. The clause structure analysis of each process shows that Nilopher has been portrayed as an assertive character. The grammatical choices of the writer help us to conclude the fickle and lustful nature of Nilopher. Moreover, it has been concluded that the character of Nilopher is developed as an emotional character with tender but corrupt nature, and covet behavior. The combination of material process verbs with specific goals and circumstances elements lead us to perceive her tender but corrupt nature. Furthermore, the transitivity analysis of mental and behavioral process verbs, explores her covet and yearning behavior. The current study is important pedagogically to understand literature with logic and evidence because transitivity analysis establishes a demonstrable fact. It will also help the writers to apply the system of transitivity with an intelligent use of language choices in portraying characters and discourse of social interaction.

Anti-corruption education as a factor of social security

The article considers an urgent scientific issue with a clear practical orientation and related to the anti-corruption education of the youth, which is defined as an important factor of social (public) security as an integral part of national security. The authors define anti-corruption education as a specific type of social activity of the authorities and civil society institutions, which aims at raising public awareness of the nature of corruption as a negative social phenomenon, of legal and social mechanisms to combat it, and at developing the anti-corruption worldview as an element of social immunity. There is a significant number of publications on the anti-corruption education, especially of the youth. They consider various aspects of this type of social activity, analyze its implementation, assess its efficiency, show the role of law enforcement agencies in the anti-corruption education of the youth, etc. However, representatives of the scientific-expert community have not yet considered the anti-corruption education in the perspective that the authors suggest. The authors, as members of the National Committee for Public Control, an interregional public organization promoting the implementation of anti-corruption programs, interpret anti-corruption education as a serious factor of social security, as an important tool for preventing radicalization of the youth consciousness. It is the radicalization that nourishes extremism and terrorism which are real threats to social (public) security. The article provides some recommendations for developing legislation of anti-corruption education. The authors believe that public authorities and civil society institutions should more actively (and not formally) involve the student youth in anti-corruption education and use the scientific-creative potential of the younger generation.

Are the anti-corruption bodies of Ukraine independent: an inside view

Ukraine currently has a system of anti-corruption bodies. Of course, a similar system of developed European states served as a model in its formation. Anti-corruption bodies in Ukraine include: the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine; prosecutors, the National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption, the National Police as specially authorized entities in the field of anti-corruption; as well as the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office - specialized anti-corruption bodies. In general, their functions are considered.Unfortunately, the independence of these bodies has not yet been achieved in Ukraine. This is due to many factors. Let's try to specify them. First, there is a lack or lack of specially trained specialists who will implement anti-corruption policy, have the appropriate qualifications and experience, and most importantly, are familiar with the issues of preventing and combating corruption. Secondly, the lack of experience given that these are newly created bodies. Of course, they study and take into account the experience of European and world practices, which, taking into account the traditions, customs and mentality, does not always work in Ukraine, where the nature of corruption differs from corruption in other countries. Third, the slow start of their activities due to the fact that their staff was formed for a very long time. Fourth, duplication of activities and lack of interaction between these bodies, which, incidentally, should be regulated by current regulations

SYMBOLISM OF THE DOUBLE AS A SOURCE OF PERSONALITY METAPHYSICS IN F.M. DOSTOEVSKY’s CREATIVITY

The article analyzes the symbolism of the Double as a source of personality theology by F.M. Dostoevsky. The novel “The Double” is considered as a paradigmatic text in which the principles of construction of key images in the late novels of F.M. Dostoevsky were formed. The paper uses the ideas of A.A. Ukhtomsky and E.Ya. Golosovker, who proposed a philosophical interpretation of the phenomenon of “duality”. The novel “The Double” is considered as a source of personality theology of F.M. Dostoevsky, since it was the first time that the figurative model of the struggle between man’s personality and mask-face, which most directly reveals the duality of his nature as the created image of God, was developed. The hero’s search for his inner “place” (topos of authenticity) and inner support in the confrontation between the “mask” and then the Double as its ultimate expression is the main theme of the story. The duality of the “nature” of man, who is both the image and likeness of God, and carries the Original sin, is a traditional theological theme and the theme of Christian anthropology. However, by means of fiction it was not developed by anyone in such depth and completeness as F.M. Dostoevsky. “Duality” acts as a special mode of negative self-disclosure of the personality by means of its elimination of its external false identities. The struggle against the Double is the struggle of the true nature of man with his damage by Original sin. Corrupt nature is in the form of masks of Doubles, and genuine - he is fighting them, searching in his soul for the highest type. The masks are overcome only by their positive survival in the inner experience of man. The text of the novel “The Double” is at first interpreted as a “genre of dreams” and as a special “initiation” text aimed at the internal transformation of the reader’s personality.

When Corruption is Cultural: Exploring Moral, Institutional and Rule-Based Concepts of Corruption

It is often asserted that people are conditioned to act corruptly by their culture in a way they cannot help themselves. The aim of this paper is to use a multidisciplinary approach, both from political theory and political science, to show that this kind of narrative about corruption is flawed because it is not informative at all about the nature of corruption. This prevents it from leading to any type of meaningful analysis or policy design. We will concentrate on two main flaws: The Triviality Objection, which points out that everything humans do is cultural in some sense or other, and the Circularity Objection, which stresses that attempting to explain why or how corruption becomes part of a specific culture, leads to saying that it is because its members act corruptly. The idea that the cultural causation is flawed becomes persuasive when we contrast that view with our concept of corruption as a special kind of harm to institutional rules: corruption may refer to a parallel set of conventions or rules that undermines the institutional set of morally justified norms.

A Comparative Study of Corruption in the Extractive Industries of Nigeria and Botswana: Lessons that can Be Learnt by the Young African Country of Eritrea

This article examines the nature of corruption in the extractive industries of two Sub-Saharan countries, namely Nigeria and Botswana. It explained the root causes of the high levels of corruption present in the case of oil and gas-rich Nigeria and the reasons that account for the minimal levels of corruption prevailing in diamond-rich Botswana. This article identified corrupt political leadership; the legacy of the divide and rule policies introduced by the former British colonial masters; lack of transparent and accountable public institutions, political patronage networks; poverty-driven desire to meet the basic necessities of life; massive inflows of petrodollars producing the “resource curse”; chronic political disruptions characterized by several military coups; the supremacy of familial, ethnic and religious loyalties over national interest and poor public sector pay as the main drivers of pervasive corruption in Nigeria. On the other hand the primary factors that contributed to the remarkable achievement of Botswana in the fight against corruption include ethical political leadership; sound pre-independence traditional institutions; relatively homogenous population; respect for rule of law and property rights; high degree of transparency; cultural intolerance to graft, establishment of democratic institutions at independence; good economic management; ability to manage ethnic diversity; and a competent, a meritorious bureaucracy. This article also identified the key elements of anticorruption strategy that would help prevent and combat corruption as well enhance integrity in the Eritrean public sector based on the experiences of Nigeria and Botswana. They include sound ethical political leadership; transparency and accountability in government; merit-based and adequately paid civil service; independent, empowered and well-resourced anticorruption commission; and prudent natural resource management.

Ethnicisation of corruption in Nigeria

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to assess the ethnicisation of corruption in Nigeria. This paper examines the role of ethnicity in promoting corruption, the impact of ethnicity on corruption and the challenge it poses for its combat.Design/methodology/approachThe study uses descriptive analysis and evidence-based research.FindingsThe paper found evidence that corruption was deeply rooted in various ethnic groups that people Nigeria, and this is the major factor militating against measures to combat it. The findings are relevant for understanding the dynamics of corruption and strategies to combat it.Originality/valueThe paper’s uniqueness is its departure from the overly researched problems, consequences and causes of corruption to a new area of linking ethnicity to the virulent nature of corruption in Nigeria. It shows a number of evidences of ethnic dimension to corruption escalation in the country.

The economic nature of corruption: a theoretical and methodological aspect

The economic nature of corruption: a theoretical and methodological aspect

Understanding Gendered Perspective to Corruption: Evidence from Pakistan

This study focuses on the debate that whether women are as corrupt as men, or their propensity to corruption is less than their male counterparts on account of their soft gender? It also encompasses the dynamics of networking, with particular emphasis on sifarish (use of influence for undue benefits) and networking in gender perspective. Are women less corrupt than men? Do the sifarish and networking have gender biasness, how women become part of these networks and what role they play therein? These are the questions addressed in this study. An interpretive approach of qualitative research has been adopted keeping in view the subjective nature of networking and corruption. Semi-structured interviews from seventeen General / Senior Managers of public sector organizations were conducted to get their input on the research questions, middle management of public sector has been selected with a view that they have immediate exposure to corruption occurrences in the society. In addition to it, in depth review of the relevant available literature has been made. It has been concluded that apparent image of women being less susceptible to corruption is not related with their sex or gender, rather it is due to their less exposure to business and economic world which, even as of today, is dominated by men This study will add to the literature on role of gender in corruption, sifarish, networking and favoritism in the Pakistani context. This will also help management practitioners in working out their strategies in defining the role of women in the anti-corruption campaigns in business and political sectors. This study has acquired feedback from the middle management employees belonging to public sector organizations as they are directly related with formation and implementation of policies, which is also a sampling limitation. Future research should be carried out on diverse samples covering private organizations and non-professional people.

Features of Public Perception of Corruption-Related Crimes in the Nizhny Novgorod Region: A Criminological and Sociological Analysis

Introduction. The study is of relevance due to the need to explore and understand the nature of corruption in terms of Sociology, which is often hampered by the lack of effective tools for studying corruption in individual countries, regions, and cities. The purpose of the study is to identify real characteristics and features of perceptions of corruption by the population of the Nizhny Novgorod Region on the basis of relevant empirical data obtained using specific tools devised by the authors. Materials and Methods. The study is based on the materials of the questionnaire “Features of Corruption-Related Crimes in the Nizhny Novgorod Region: A Criminological Analysis” carried out using specific tools devised by the authors – the developed scales making it possible to identify respondents’ attitudes to various corruption situations and the reasons that cause them by using a system of indirect questions (the projection method). Scales (with a minimum variable part) were also used in the subsequent questionnaire of representatives of small and medium-sized businesses, and police officers, making it possible to perform a comparative analysis of attitudes towards corruption in different groups of respondents. Results. Perception of corruption-related crimes by the population of the Nizhny Novgorod Region has been analyzed; patterns of the general level of tolerance for corruption, the correlation of sex, age, education, and place of residence of respondents with their attitude to corruption have been revealed. Attitudes of residents of the Nizhny Novgorod Region to corruption in everyday life have been systematized. The authors have identified significant factors affecting the level of corruption. A number of recommendations for employees of the internal affairs bodies involved in the implementation of preventive measures on corruption-related crimes have been formulated. Discussion and Conclusion. In the ordinary perception of the region’s inhabitants, the concepts of ‘corruption-related crimes’ and ‘corruption’ do not coincide. Attribution of certain acts to manifestations of corruption-related crimes in some cases is caused not only by the general legal literacy of the population, but also by the peculiarities of the national mentality, culture, and sometimes professional affiliation. The results of the study are of both theoretical and practical significance and can be used to improve the work of regional divisions of the internal affairs bodies engaged in countering corruption.

Russia’s civil service: professional or patrimonial? Executive-level officials in five federal ministries

ABSTRACT The issue of poor performance of the Russian federal bureaucracy is addressed by linking performance to type of official, through analysis of biographical data on deputy ministers and division (departament) heads in five federal ministries since 2012, supplemented by internet searches on behavior, particularly of a corrupt nature. Education, previous career experience, and recruitment, including its timing relative to superiors and subordinates, are analyzed, in order to determine whether officials behave primarily as members of patrimonial teams, as members of problem-solving organizations, as self-serving individuals, as the instruments of capture by commercial organizations, or as servants of bureaucratic agency interests. The data do not strongly support any one conclusion, but problem-solving officials have the strongest presence.

Book Review: Political Corruption. The Underside of Civic Morality, by Robert Alan Sparling

Political corruption is a contested concept. Both terms in the concept are the object of controversies in political theory, and concern what corruption is and how it is a politically relevant phenomenon. Political corruption has been contested across time, space, cultures, and philosophical traditions. Usually, political corruption is assumed to involve an exchange between a private corruptor and a public official who pursues her personal interest by abusing her power of office. While this account may be true with respect to some such instances as bribery, some significant uncertainties affect its plausibility. Practices such as patronage or state capture might escape this account either because they do not involve a corruptor or because the corrupted officer does not pursue her personal interest but, say, that of her party or faction. Interestingly, despite or perhaps in reason of this semantic uncertainty, political corruption is generally perceived as a disease of the public function, something which any sensible political theory of the good state should want to avoid. Why is such a negative intuition about the nature of political corruption so widespread? A growing debate in political theory is now starting to inquire into the exact nature of the wrongness of political corruption. In this timely book, Robert Sparling engages with such an important but still developing debate.

Methodological Dead Ends of Modern Criminology

The main source of methodological dead ends in science is the rigidity of its key theoretical construct determined by the accepted methodology. Such rigidity hinders the natural development of science that spreads it competencies to new unknown spheres of reality. Any attempts to apply a common concept to reality invariably come across its variety. The science resolves contradictions between the general and the specific by finding intermediary links between them. In all situations when a common concept is problematic, methodology plays the part of a high point that makes it possible to observe all shifts in the contradiction between the essence and the phenomenon. Criminology is based on the hypothesis of a society that generates crime. The contents of this society include the whole aggregate of public circumstances that have a criminological significance. Russian criminological mainstream views criminogenic circumstances as those in the sphere of socially negative public relations. The use of the criterion of socially negative relations to identify criminologically relevant public circumstances is the key obstacle for the criminological research in many directions. A true challenge for such research is explaining the nature of economic, corruption and information crimes. Their basics form public relations that are, for the most part, in the realm of the criminological unknown. Hence, it is problematic to produce well-founded recommendations on the development and implementation of a crime suppression policy. In the process of research, the authors determined that criminologically relevant circumstances may, in principle, belong to any of the possible aspects of analyzing the social environment. To prevent the general scheme aimed at identifying criminogenic circumstances from being stuck in the close and the immediate, it is necessary, first of all, to take into consideration a growing significance of independent actions of the community in its interaction with the state when determining the boundaries of the socially negative phenomena. Secondly, it is suggested that local social systems should be used as an intermediary link between the general scheme and specific local social interactions for representing the process of forming criminogenic circumstances in it entirety, in the interconnection of positive, negative and «grey» interactions.

CONCEPT AND ORIGINS OF CORRUPTION AS A SOCIAL DELINQUENT PHENOMENON

This article is an attempt to defi ne the main meanings of the concept of corruption in modern Russian jurisprudence. Corruption (forms of corrupt behavior) is considered as a systemic negative social phenomenon (corruption deviance) and as a conditional system of specifi c types of corruption offenses (acts of delinquent behavior), responsibility for the commission of which is provided for by the current legislation. Based on the difference between the formal legal (positivist) and sociological types of legal understanding, the author distinguishes between corruption activities in general and certain types of corruption offenses; analyzes the main forms of corruption, their individual characteristics and features. Conclusions are drawn about the need for detailed development of specifi c components of corruption offenses in various branches of Russian law and the inevitability of the emergence of a single philosophical and legal concept ofcorruption as a global negative social phenomenon. The fundamental importance of a multi-factor approach in studying the nature of corruption, as well as the most important conditions and causes of its appearance and development in society is determined.

Predators or Protectors? Military Corruption as a Pillar of Regime Survival in Uganda

ABSTRACT When he came to power in 1986, Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni promised to establish a professional, disciplined and all-inclusive national army. More than three decades later, the Ugandan army under his leadership has constantly been entangled in record corruption scandals. Based on extensive field research, this article explores the nature of corruption in Uganda’s defence sector and shows how corruption is tolerated and sometimes encouraged by the regime leader because it serves as an instrument of political control. The article highlights pervasive corruption in the Ugandan army, the political use of corruption by the regime and the impact it has had more generally.

Greasing, rent-seeking bribes and firm growth: evidence from garment and textile firms in Vietnam

Empirical studies on firm bribery do not distinguish different types of bribes. This obscures the complexity of bribes and contributes to the inconclusive findings on firm bribe–performance relationships. This study examines how greasing and rent-seeking bribes relate to firm growth in Vietnam. Based on data from a sample of garment and textile firms, the research shows that greasing bribes have a positive relationship with firm growth. By contrast, the relationship between rent-seeking bribes and firm growth is positive for state-owned firms, but not clear for private firms. The results suggest that anti-corruption strategies need to address the multifaceted nature of corruption.

Anti-Corruption Legislation of Russia: A Retrospective Analysis of the Formation of the Mechanism of Legal Effect

The paper investigates methodological, organizational and practical aspects of the legal effect on corruption during the period of formation and development of the national statehood. The novelty of the subject under consideration lies in the issue associated with: 1) the disclosure of the causes and conditions of corruption as a socially negative phenomenon at certain stages of the state and legal development; 2) identification of key directions of the legal policy in the field of anti-corruption predetermined by socio-economic and political transformations. In the course of achieving the goal of the study, the author has applied special legal methods of cognition contributing to the retrospective analysis of the legal regulation of legal liability for corruption-related offenses. As the result of the study, the paper shows the legal nature of corruption, its essential specificities and features as a socially negative phenomenon. The authors have identified peculiarities of anti-corruption measures undertaken during the period of the Russian statehood under review. Also, they have determined the tendencies in the legal regulation of corruption-related crimes and defined the features of the mechanism of the legal regulation of legal responsibility for corruption. The authors have expressed their opinion about the absence of categorical and legal assessment of the concept of corruption in the domestic legislation of the period under review that would predetermine recognition of measures having effect under criminal law as a strategic resource of counteracting corruption-related offenses. The paper draws conclusions about the factors inspiring the legislative regulation of corruption-related crimes and about the specifics of the implementation of punishment and other measures under criminal law.