Structures, spheres and causes of corruption on a global scale

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

As a social phenomenon, corruption has a long history. It is inherent in all states and appeared simultaneously with the emergence of the state, although it manifested itself in different forms. This is a complex social phenomenon, and its origin goes back to the custom of making ritual sacrifices and at the same time giving gifts to priests and leaders in order to gain their favor and support in solving the petitioner's problems.

That is, attitudes towards the gods are projected onto the priests and leaders, and this is the essence of civilization. A tradition that is many tens of thousands of years old. As long as humanity has existed, because Modern is only about two hundred years old, and only within the framework of Modernity, the attitude to offerings as to sin (and then to corruption) has arisen and developed into a complex of moral imperatives.

Traditional patriarchal society considers it a good form to present officials. This is intended to attract attention, to arouse favor. Gifts are made as if "from the heart", "as a sign of respect." That is why offerings are so strong in the world of Islam - Tradition reigns there. Born in Europe, the Modern did not influence the minds and very strong patriarchal attitudes. That is why the East, as you know, is a delicate matter.

As patriarchal relations are crowded out by the Modern, the attitude to offerings as to corruption invades the world of Islam. What is happening now in the world of Islam in relation to Modernity, happened in Russia during the time of Peter I, with the only difference that Modernity is injected into the world of Islam gradually, without breaking the established way of life on the knee. Modernization, that is, the Westernization of the world of Islam, stretched over several generations, has ebb and flow, but as a trend it continues and flows without stopping.

Islam is included in the civilization of the Modern through the introduction to the use of technical achievements, and this entails a diffuse transformation of many traditional attitudes, mixing with the attitudes of the Modern. But it is no longer possible for anyone to completely isolate themselves from Modernity. In three or four generations, the world of Islam will be different from the present. The attitude towards corruption will inevitably transform. From a cultural norm, it will increasingly be considered a crime.

The political definition of corruption was given by Aristotle, calling it a sign of tyranny. This parallel is unexpected for us - and very accurate. Corruption has now really turned into a kind of tyranny, because it oppresses the entire society. Tyranny Aristotle described as a form of monarchy corrupted by corruption.

Current dictionaries define corruption as bribery, bribery, corruption of officials and politicians. Corruption is a sign of the decay of the economic and political system in the state. But the first corruption appeared with the first official - and, apparently, will die with the last official of the last state. But as long as there is a state, there will be corruption. As long as the body is alive, the viruses are also alive. The problem is in the level of immunity.

Modernity has adapted democracy to the state, and with all its flawedness, this is the main merit of Modernity. The state fights corruption through anti-corruption legislation. But the weak point of this struggle is that lawmaking itself can become criminal. Here, criminal lawmaking is no longer a manifestation of errors and incompetence of legislators, but precisely the seizure of the state and the formation of pocket lawmaking structures. This will violate the balance of lawmaking interests.

In the event of such a seizure of the state, corruption lawmaking is activated, when legal, legalized legal norms can be corrupt, that is, provoking corrupt acts. The apotheosis of such a criminal state is the United States, where the entire political system is formed by a group of individuals who have seized the state with all its institutions - the owners of the Federal Reserve System.

In the United States, there is not the slightest area where the norms issued by the pocket structures of this group would not apply. Legalized corruption in the form of legal lobbying is the pinnacle of the corrupt essence of the US political system.

Professor of the University of Zurich Jordan Ballor, analyzing the problem of the American public debt, called this problem a civilizational crisis in the United States, which is based on corruption, formalized in a whole complex of complex legal procedures, but this does not change its essence.

The second most criminal state is Britain, where a significant part of the state elite has been involved in drug trafficking. The Anglo-American elite supports the system of political protection of the drug trade and the laundering of drug money through the world banking system. Without control over lawmaking, special services, media and parties, this would be impossible.

The clearest example of pocket criminal lawmaking is modern Ukraine, which itself is a pocket state of another criminal state - the United States. In Ukraine, the seizure of the state by corrupt structures and corrupt criminal lawmaking is formalized in its purest form on the territory of the former USSR.

In Russia, the criminal and corruption seizure of the state during the collapse of the USSR was a colossal force, and the centers of corruption lawmaking have always sought to grow in the legal and political systems. The strongest internal struggle manages to resist this without causing a general crisis of governance, but the problem of corruption, although within smaller boundaries than in the United States, Britain and Ukraine, exists in Russia and is the central theme of Russian society.

The difference between the political system of Russia and those that exist in the United States is that in Russia there is no dominance of one group that has managed to completely seize the state, and there are other groups opposing those that seek such seizure. There are also groups that are not part of the lawmaking circuit and are fighting to penetrate this circuit.

Without exception, all these groups, both in power and in opposition, can be affected by corruption, however, neutralizing each other, they do not allow the criminal seizure of the state to take place. It is obvious to everyone that it is vertical corruption in Russia that is strengthening; many high-profile names appear more and more often in the media for this reason.

That is why the state, never completely defeating corruption, is able to carry out an anti-corruption fight, preventing the seizure of the state as a whole and reducing corruption to the horizontal level of local episodes, reducing the level of vertical corruption of the system as a whole.

Corruption itself can be everyday, business, top, political, criminal and mixed. Corruption is not only bribes and embezzlement. It is also a complex system of patron-client relationships. It arises not only in the state apparatus, but also in private corporations. A whole category of intermediaries in corruption transactions has emerged - the so-called "resolvers".

Corruption is understood everywhere as “the abandonment of expected standards of behavior on the part of government officials for illegal gain”. An official takes bribes for two types of activities: he either does what he has no right to do, or does not do what he is obliged to do.

That is why the society instantly responded to the case of Senator Arashukov. This is a very clear intra-elite signal that the anti-corruption struggle will gradually intensify and become a long-term strategic priority.

The immoral basis of the selfish actions of corrupt power subjects generates public activity to oppose such a model of behavior. Civil society is being mobilized and consolidated in the process of influencing management structures. Corruption is not only the habitat of the administrative apparatus, it is an indicator of public moral health. The higher the corruption, the worse this health is.

Attitude towards corruption is a special type of public consciousness, condescending to the fact that it can speed up the process of making the necessary decision, play the role of lubricant, effective, and therefore inevitable. The level of corruption has reached a level that threatens national security.

Officials are already bribed not to violate their duties, but to fulfill them. The basis for bribes is the uncertainty of the duties of officials, the monopoly on decision-making and approval, and the lack of administrative and financial capabilities of the state. This is called "bureaucratic entrepreneurship." K. Marx called it the privatization of the state by the bureaucracy.

The structure of corruptionaccording to the norms of Russian legislation are: bribery (core), lobbying, protectionism, contributions for political purposes, the transfer of political leaders and government officials to the posts of honorary chairmen of banks and corporations, investment of private business from the state budget, transfer of state property to the form of JSC, forgery, falsification, resale government resources and preferential centralized loans, tax evasion, seizure of shares in federal ownership, buying votes on the eve of elections, protection and covering up (protection), perjury.

Reasons for corruption:monopoly of power of state officials, lack of openness, control and accountability, economic decline and political instability, imperfection of legislation, ineffectiveness of government institutions, weakness of civil society, isolation from power, lack of rootedness of democratic traditions, underdevelopment of legal consciousness of the population, inability of people to use the existing conditions of democracy.

This also includes unfair competition, a politically determined system of double standards, shortcomings in the protection of property rights, shortcomings in the system of training competent managers, insufficient transparency in financing parties and public organizations.

Areas of manifestation of corruption:acts on the privatization of state property, budget execution and distribution of budgetary funds, banking, lobbying in parliaments, law enforcement and economic crime, housing and communal services, customs, conscription, healthcare, education, control and supervision activities, licensing and licensing sphere.

Separately, they highlight: nepotism and favoritism (appointment to posts and positions of relatives and friends), promotion of personal interests, collusion (granting preferences to individuals, conflict of interest), accepting gifts to speed up the resolution of problems, abuse of power (including intimidation, torture), manipulation of regulation (falsification of elections, administrative resources, decision-making in favor of one group or person).

Electoral violations (vote buying) and clientism (or paternalism) as the provision of material services in exchange for support) also belong to the sphere of corruption.

In April 2010, Russia adopted the National Anti-Corruption Strategy. This is a document that focuses on grassroots corruption - the maximum possible at that time. The municipal level is especially highlighted, which is what citizens most often meet. The word "municipal" appears 46 times in this seven-page document. At this level, it was planned: countering everyday corruption, ensuring transparency of purchases, personnel decisions, land allocation, identifying conflicts of interest.

Everything that could be done on a horizontal level has been done. All that has not been done concerns the merging of horizontal and vertical corruption. And now the stage of the fight against vertical corruption has begun. This opportunity arose because top-level corruption is closely linked with external support, and during the conflict between Russia and the West, this support turned into a trap. The hopelessness of the position of the upper echelon of corruption allowed the authorities to launch an offensive against this echelon of corruption.

The Russian state machine, like any other, slowly unfolds, but it is impossible to stop it. The fight against systemic corruption is acquiring systemic properties. The stronger this struggle, the higher the confidence of citizens in the state. And as soon as it begins to seriously fight corruption, the authorities immediately strengthen their positions. Therefore, the fight against corruption does not weaken the political system, but strengthens it, adds legitimacy to it. The legitimacy of the corrupt government is very weak and cannot do without illegal means of influence.

However, the fight against corruption is not the business of the government alone. Without a change in attitudes towards everyday corruption, all efforts of the authorities to eradicate top-level corruption will be wasted. The mass consciousness should be ready not only to reject small bribes at the level of everyday life, but also be ready to openly discuss all the dark spheres of public relations, realizing that without this the disease of corruption cannot be cured.

She will never leave completely, but society is able to drive her into a deep underground. Without this, no economic and moral health of the country is possible. Repression alone will not save you from corruption. A healthy economy is, first of all, a healthy morality. And to heal morality you should always start with yourself. There is no other way to save our Russian civilization.