Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Corruption Studies'

Latin America is a region that has gone through and is still going through a lot of violent conflict. Both Mexico and Colombia have several similarities that stem from grand corruption. The vast systemic grand corruption is evidenced by the use of state violence, including massacres, other human rights violations, structural violence, the repression of the media, the repression of minorities, controversial land acquisitions, and the collusion of organized crime and the state, leading to state capture. The high levels of impunity, weak structures, and weak judicial systems have contributed to the continuation of systemic corruption and state violence. The research below explores the causal link between grand corruption, state capture, and state terror. It also explores the role of weak institutions, structural violence, and other factors that play an important role in 4 diverse case studies of state capture and state terror both in Mexico and Colombia.

China's unique system of hiring and promoting talented people within the state, under the supervision of the Communist Party, has been held up as an important institutional factor supporting its remarkably rapid and sustained economic growth. Jointly with Professor Peter L. Lorentzen, we explore this meritocracy argument in the context of Chinese leader Xi Jinping's ongoing anti-corruption campaign. Some question the sincerity of the campaign, arguing that it is nothing but a cover for intra-elite struggle and a purge of Xi's opponents. In the first chapter of my thesis, we use a dataset I have created to identify accused officials and map their connections. Our evidence supports the Party's claim that the crackdown is primarily a sincere effort to cut down on the widespread corruption that was undermining its efforts to develop an effective meritocratic governing system. First, we visualize the "patron-client'' network of all probed officials announced by the central government and identify the core targets of the anti-corruption campaign. Second, we use a recursive selection model to analyze who the campaign has targeted, providing evidence that even personal ties to top leaders have provided little protection. Finally, we show that, in the years leading up to the crackdown, the provinces later targeted had departed from the growth-oriented meritocratic selection procedures evident in other provinces.

In addition to its motivation, I also discuss the campaign's effects on economic efficiency. The second chapter of my thesis tests the "greasing-the-wheels'' hypothesis in the context of China's residential land market. We show that China's anti-corruption campaign, aimed at removing corruption in China's monopoly land market, caused a decrease in land transaction volumes. Furthermore, not removing any form of corruption would also lead to a similar decrease. It is only necessary to remove corruption that enables real estate developers to circumvent red tape and reduce trading costs. Our findings support the "greasing-the-wheels'' hypothesis hypothesis: when an economy has a low outcome owing to some preexisting distortions, corruption could be a positive factor in that it offers a "second-best world.''

Corruption is defined as the abuse of public office for private gain. Often, corruption has devastating consequences, the two main consequences of which are economic and social. Unfortunately corruption exists most in developing countries, where people already live under hard economical and social conditions. The Pacific Islands are a region where corruption is a problem. Some countries are doing better than others, some have improved and some have got worse. But almost all of the Pacific island countries have faced cups or riots, breakdown of law and order as a consequence of corruption. The region is unique and characterized by ecological and cultural diversity, colonization, tribes, a human history rich in epic ritual, travel, narrative, and innovation. This thesis has examined one small Pacific Island country, Vanuatu which is a typical example of an island country in the region. 76 % of the people lives on 83 different islands and have little contact with the central island and its public and political administration. The purpose was to examine why corruption exists in the region with the help of different corruption theories. The result was that many Islands in the Pacific have been colonised and have had very little time to build up a stable public and political administration. Results also showed that the islands have a strong tribal tradition and people lives isolated on islands far away from the “real political life”, there is also a culture which accepts e.g. bribery and the general attitude is that parliamentarians should look after their original tribe rather than the entire country.

Like an elephant, while it may be difficult to describe, corruption is generally not difficult to recognize when observed (Tanzi, 1998, p. 564). Many countries have been, or are currently typified by both lethal conflict and massive corruption. Historically, post-conflict development programs have imposed policies of zero corruption, yet they routinely fail. Initial research into “corruption” also identified significant ambiguities and self-contradiction with the definition of corruption, itself. This study used an Existential Phenomenological methodology with 8 participants from Iraq, Afghanistan, Uganda, South Sudan and Sudan to: 1) redefine and model corruption within a global construct, 2) examine the current doctrine mandating zero tolerance for corruption, and 3) examine the potential for tolerating moderate levels of corruption in favor of reduced lethal violence. Corrupt behavior is alleged by this research to include financial as well as non-financial mechanisms, and is motivated by Human, Institutional and Cultural Factors of Corruption. This research robustly redefines corruption, and develops new theories/models to better explain corrupt behavior. These include the Corruption Hierarchy, the Corruption Pyramid and the Universal Corruption Model. The research was inconclusive with respect to the tolerance of corruption mitigating lethal conflict, but confirmed strong support for policies of zero tolerance. In redefining corruption, many political, social and cultural norms currently exhibited by nation states, including the United States, are corrupt if/when properly classified. I’m desperate about my country. You’ve got to be strong in my country. If you are weak, they will take you. (Jeremy from Iraq)

This paper is a comparative analysis of Russian and Chinese markets in terms of businesscorruption. This study is based on quantitative and qualitative case analysis and small surveysaccording to different criteria.The aim of this work is to find out the general feature of corruption and show main differencesand similarities on corruption practices in Russian Federation and People’s Republic of China. Along with the comparative study this paper also presents general overview on corruption fromhistorical point of view. The results of the analysis show the main characteristics of the corruption phenomenon in China and Russia according to popularity of corruptive behavior, typology of bribes, reasons forcorruptive acts, impact from different local cultures, such as “Guanxi” and “Blat”, and also thestructure of enterprises. We believe that our work may be proved useful for further researches on this subject, and alsohelp business managers to avoid disadvantages caused by lack of knowledge on corruptionphenomenon when doing business in Russia and China.

Businesses today are constantly on the lookout for new investment opportunities. Often,

they have to move away from their home market and enter new countries in order to

continue to grow. One question that is sometimes omitted when planning such moves is that

of corruption. Especially when moving into transition economies, the issue of corruption

can be an obscure and complex one, on which little research has been made to date. Russia

is one such economy, with a huge investment potential, but very unclear rules about how

business is and should be conducted. It would be interesting to see to what extent

corruption in Russia has affected Swedish companies’ entry strategies in the Russian market.

The method chosen for the purpose of this thesis was to conduct a survey of 20 Swedish

firms currently present in Russia. We also conducted interviews with 3 experts in the field

of Russian business, and one representative of a Swedish firm considering expanding their

operations in Russia. This combination of quantitative and qualitative methods would allow

us to look at things from different perspectives and get a better view of the state of

corruption in Russia. The interviews were in some cases conducted in person, allowing for a

broader and less formal discussion of the topic, helping the authors gain more insight and

generate new ideas to be used in the paper.

The authors found that Swedish companies operating in Russia usually attribute little

importance to the issue of corruption during the planning stages of the market penetration

strategy. Many of these firms did encounter corruption at later stages of market

penetration, and were forced to rethink their strategies accordingly, showing that corruption affect

entry strategies to a great extent. It was concluded that the most appropriate method for

Swedish firms to enter the Russian market is through fully-owned subsidiaries, with the

assistance of local consulting agencies, which provide help when dealing with those areas

where corruption is most likely to exist.

In the South African federal elections in May 2014, over one million born-frees failed to register to vote. This lack of political participation was surprising because this was the first election in which this new generation of voters, who had never lived under the oppressive apartheid regime, was eligible to vote. It was hypothesized that social trust and corruption, as it undermines political trust, were contributing factors to the low rates of youth voter turnout. A pilot study was developed and implemented with a small group of South Africans who were participating in a youth development program at a nongovernmental organization in the Western Cape. Focus group and interview data suggested that corruption, crime rates, and access to adequate services were of large concern in this sample. A survey developed through adaptation of items from the 2012 South African Reconciliation Barometer and the World Bank’s Integrated Questionnaire for the Measurement of Social Capital showed a potential relationship between levels of political and social trust and voting behaviour. Due to these results, and the finding that participants were highly engaged with social media, recommendations to increase youth political participation included social media campaigns, using Facebook to create social capital, and promotion of education as a tool to develop interpersonal trust and political participation through enhanced access, quality, and scholarships. One novel finding within this research was that respondents expected the government to be the provider of tangible goods and services whereas the onus of completing education and securing employment was on the individual. This group seems to have a sense of personal agency that, if capitalized upon, could create a generation of politically active young people. Despite methodological concerns and limitations associated with sample size, this pilot study is an important contribution to the political participation literature and opens the door for large-scale quantitative studies to examine more closely the impacts of corruption, political trust, and social trust on voting behaviours in the born-free generation.

2008-06-05

In this paper corruption in Bosnia and Herzegovina has been studied to investigate to what extent corruption inhibits Bosnia and Herzegovina’s possibilities of integrating with EU.

The overarching research question is how occurrence of various types and forms of corruption affect the possibilities of Bosnia and Herzegovina to fulfill the criteria negotiated by the EU. In order to undertake this exploration the study uses typologies to identify and categorize the various forms of corruption that exist in Bosnia and Herzegovina and theories about the impact of these forms of corruption. After that these forms of corruption are analyzed in relation to their impact on the various political and economic criteria that are set for integration and membership in EU, such as independent justice system and the acceleration of the privatization process.

The results show that corruption in Bosnia and Herzegovina represents a major obstacle to several of the criteria set by the EU and thereby integration with EU. Even though that these priorities are told to be set with realistic goals these priorities will be difficult to fulfill with such widespread corruption as in Bosnia and Herzegovina today.

This study aims to investigate, from an institutional perspective, the implications of the

new anti-corruption law in Viet Nam with a particular focus on its impact on civil society

and individual rights to report on corruption. The overarching research question is: How do

formal and informal institutions affect whistle-blowers possibilities to engage in combat of

corruption in Viet Nam? To blow the whistle in Viet Nam can be problematic, with

consequences such as loosing his/hers job and social exclusion. Whistle-blowers in Viet

Nam today seem to have an insufficient confidence to official authorities. Moreover, a

problem of significance is that whistle-blowers have to state their name and contact details

when reporting on corrupt acts to competent agencies. Another problem is that civil society

is strongly connected to the CPV (Communist Party of Viet Nam).