Democracy and corruption: a complex relationship

Saha, Shrabani; Gounder, Rukmani; Campbell, Neil; Su, Jen‐Je

doi:10.1007/s10611-013-9506-2

Cited by 38 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 44 publications

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“…Una reciente investigación (Saha, Gounder, Campbell, & Su, 2014) argumenta que la democracia electoral por sí sola no es suficiente para reducir los niveles de corrupción, entretanto, los mecanismos institucionales propios de democracias más desarrolladas son pivotes que sirven de barrera al comportamiento corrupto. Estas democracias tienen instituciones que funcionan mejor, donde los posibles corruptos son más fácilmente detectados lo que encarece el costo de la relación de corrupción.…”

Section: Resultsunclassified

Corrupción en la función pública: un estudio sobre correlaciones entre corrupción, calidad de la democracia, gobernanza, desigualdad de renta y desempleo en el mundo (2008-2012)

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Torrecillas

2015

rev.colomb.cienc.soc

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El estudio cuantitativo de la corrupción ha crecido en las últimas décadas, abriendo caminos sin precedentes para la pesquisa social. En este trabajo, se hace una comparación transnacional sobre la percepción de corrupción en la función pública desde 2008 hasta 2012. Se trabaja con tres hipótesis: 1) la corrupción es más frecuente en países con menor calidad democrática; 2) todos los indicadores de gobernanza ejercen algún efecto sobre la corrupción; 3) la desigualdad es un importante predictor del nivel de corrupción, aún más que el desempleo. Para probar estas hipótesis se utilizan datos del Democracy Ranking of the Quality of Democracy, Corruption Perception Index, Worldwide Governance Indicators, datos del World Development Indicators y del Banco Mundial, datos estos que calculan el nivel global de desempleo y el índice Gini, que mide la desigualdad de consumo y renta. Los resultados muestran que las dos primeras hipótesis son adherentes, ya que hay alta correlación negativa entre corrupción en la función pública y cualidad de la democracia además de los seis indicadores de gobernanza. La tercera hipótesis muestra relativa adherencia pues, desigualdad de renta y desempleo están correlacionados con la corrupción en el funcionalismo público, sin embargo, la correlación tiene bajo valor de significancia, lo que indica que estos dos factores son apenas parte de un todo entre factores que componen el nivel de corrupción. © Revista Colombiana de Ciencias Sociales.

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Section: Resultsunclassified

Corrupción en la función pública: un estudio sobre correlaciones entre corrupción, calidad de la democracia, gobernanza, desigualdad de renta y desempleo en el mundo (2008-2012)

Moraes

Torrecillas

2015

rev.colomb.cienc.soc

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“…Sung (2004) found that corruption level is a cubic function of current democracy level. Saha et al (2014) found the relationship between current democracy level and corruption was significant only if the democracy level reached a specific threshold.…”

Section: Democratic Traditionmentioning

confidence: 95%

Rethinking the Causes of Corruption: Perceived Corruption, Measurement Bias, and Cultural Illusion

2016

Chin. Polit. Sci. Rev.

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This paper extends the empirical research on determinants of corruption conducted during the last 20 years. It argues that the apparent correlations between cultural traditions and a country's corruption level are not valid causal inferences. Instead, these correlations are primarily the artifacts of measurement bias on the dependent variable. Corruption measured by perception-based indicators can be conflated with the cultural bias conceived by the respondents whose subjective assessments are the main sources of these indicators. These assessments tend to attribute clean government to specific cultural traditions, for example, Protestantism and a long history of being a democracy. These claims are defended with a series of tests that show first the perception-based indicators of corruption suffer substantial weaknesses, especially systematic measurement bias; second, how the causal mechanisms linking corruption to cultural traditions exhibit inherent theoretical uncertainties; and third, that most of the statistical relationships between cultural traditions and corruption disappear when perception-based indicators of corruption are substituted with an experience-based measurement of corruption. In short, the proposed causal relationships between cultural traditions and corruption are spurious.

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“…However, this link is not as straightforward as it seems. Most authors emphasize that an “independent effect of democracy is dubious” (Paldam, 2002: 238) and only a “mature democracy is crucial to successfully deterring corrupt behavior” (Saha et al, 2014: 287). Thus, Daniel Treisman brings to the fore, in the context of anti-corruption measures, the problem of “endogeneity of democracy”: “[…] the relationship between democracy and lower corruption may reflect that corrupt officials stifle democracy rather than that exposure to democracy reduces corruption” (2000: 435).…”

Section: Anti-corruption Discourse Through the Lens Of Governmentalitmentioning

confidence: 99%

Corrupt governance: Self-defeating anti-corruption rhetoric and initiatives in Russia

Pavlova

2020

New Perspectives

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Resilience theory has been used to describe the “bounce back” effect—a system’s ability to recover to its normal state after a shock. While this usually applies to systems whose survival is seen in a positive light (such as democracy), this article emphasizes the other, darker side of this phenomenon. I demonstrate how anti-corruption discourse can support certain practices that actually contribute to the resilience of corruption. By comparing the anti-corruption discourses of the Russian government and its political opposition, this article shows the interdependence and mutual reinforcement of two practices: (I) the pervasive resolution of everyday problems by corrupt methods and (II) focusing on the corruption of particular actors as the main obstacle to the development of the country and society. The effect of this interdependence is ambivalent, as both practices challenge corruption and contribute to its resilience. In effect, this becomes a mode of government and I link the concept of resilience with the literature on governmentality to better illuminate the endurance of corruption in Russia despite sincere (and even well-intended) anti-corruption campaigns. This model of rethinking the resilience of corrupt practices with the special focus on anti-corruption rhetoric can be applied to other countries where corruption serves as a pivot of the social and economic system, as it does in Russia.

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Democracy and corruption: a complex relationship

Cited by 38 publications

References 44 publications

Corrupción en la función pública: un estudio sobre correlaciones entre corrupción, calidad de la democracia, gobernanza, desigualdad de renta y desempleo en el mundo (2008-2012)

Corrupción en la función pública: un estudio sobre correlaciones entre corrupción, calidad de la democracia, gobernanza, desigualdad de renta y desempleo en el mundo (2008-2012)

Rethinking the Causes of Corruption: Perceived Corruption, Measurement Bias, and Cultural Illusion

Corrupt governance: Self-defeating anti-corruption rhetoric and initiatives in Russia

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