http://www.u4.no/themes/political-corruption/introduction.cfm
What is political corruption?
Political corruption can be defined both with reference to the main
actors involved, namely persons at the highest levels of the
political system, and the purpose of the corrupt behaviour, namely
to sustain the hold on power. Hence, political corruption can be
for private and group enrichment, and for power preservation
purposes. Often these two forms of political corruption are
connected. Some of the larger and more serious political corruption
scandals include both processes - accumulation on the one hand and
the misuse of extracted or public money for political purposes on
the other. The latter process is somewhat under-researched and
underestimated, since much of the focus in the literature has been
on accumulation.
Political corruption in the form of accumulation or extraction
occurs when government officials use and abuse their hold on power
to extract from the private sector, from government revenues, and
from the economy at large. These processes of accumulation have
been called extraction, embezzlement, rent-seeking, plunder and
even kleptocracy ("rule by thieves" ), depending on the extent and
context. Extraction takes place mainly in the form of soliciting
bribes in procurement and government projects, in privatisation
processes and in taxation. Military procurement is known to be
particularly affected by extractive political corruption worldwide,
because of the involvement of top-level politicians, national
interests and secrecy.
The other process, when extracted resources (and public money) are
used for power preservation and power extension purposes, usually
takes the form of favouritism and patronage politics. It includes a
favouritist and politically motivated distribution of financial and
material inducements, benefits, advantages, and spoils. Techniques
include money and material favours to build political loyalty and
political support. Power-holders can pay off rivals and opposition
and secure a parliamentary majority. By giving preferences to
private companies they can get party and campaign funds, and by
paying off the governmental institutions of checks and control they
can stop investigations and audits and gain judicial impunity.
Furthermore, by buying loyal decisions from election commissions
and by buying votes they can secure their re-election.
Political corruption takes place at the highest levels of the
political system, and can thus be distinguished from administrative
or bureaucratic corruption. Bureaucratic corruption takes place at
the implementation end of politics, for instance in government
services like education and health. Political corruption takes
place at the formulation end of politics, where decisions on the
distribution of the nation's wealth and the rules of the game are
made.
Political corruption is usually also distinguished from business
and private sector corruption. This is only a matter of academic
classification, however, since the bribes offered by private
companies, domestic and international, are frequent and significant
corruption drivers. Our focus here, however, is not on the supply
side of corrupt transactions, but on the demand side. Most
definitions of corruption also emphasise the demand (state) side,
for instance in stating that corruption is "abuse of public
authority and power for private benefit".
In this text, we will not go into bureaucratic/administrative
corruption, except when relevant to illustrating the systemic
character of political corruption - the pyramid of upward
extraction. We will keep the focus on the demand side, on corrupt
governments, while acknowledging the importance of the supply side
as drivers. We will furthermore focus on political corruption in
developing and transition countries, and not the developed world
(although examples from the developed world are used to illustrate
certain mechanisms).
The most widely used definition
of corruption is the World Bank's working definition of corruption
as "abuse of public power for private benefit". Transparency
International (TI) takes a somewhat broader approach and defines it
as "the abuse of entrusted power for private gain". In this line,
political corruption can be defined as "abuse of political power
for private benefit". But the problem remains of defining what is
"abuse" and what is "political".
