Causes of Corruption George Benson Theories of where

Causes of Corruption – George Benson

Theories of where corruption comes from • 1. Modernization (rapid economic and social development) – Involves changes in basic values of society, – creates new sources of wealth and power, – involves expansion of government authority and regulation – increase in laws

Causes of corruption continued • 2. Class Against Corruption – Benson and Huntington (but note critics) • 3. Overemphasis on Business Values • 4. Party Dominance Theory (suggests that party competition will decrease corruption) – Related: electoral competition/high turnout should decrease corruption

More causes of corruption… • 5. Weakness in the form of government (for example, a non-merit based system of non elected jobs, such as teachers or police officers or other city workers or bureaucrats is said to breed corruption; or weak chief executive system) • 6. Money in Elections • 7. Organized Crime

Still more causes of corruption • 8. Low pay for public officials • 9. Lack of ethical standards (religion, culture) – Daniel Elazar on different cultures within the U. S. Moralistic Individualistic Traditionalist

One way to think of all these theories • Personalistic (blame the individual) • Institutional (consequence of laws and institutions)

Comparing corruption among U. S. states • My study (based on perceptions of corruption in each state, 1999) • What factors matter? – Urbanization (more urban, more corruption – urbanization leads to weaker communal bonds, less interpersonal contact, people don’t trust others or treat others as honestly) – Per capita income – Legislative professionalization (more professionalized, more corruption : either due to career politicians becoming out of touch and corrupt, or professional legislatures get more media coverage that is negative and this leads to a higher perception of corruption in government)

Corruption in the U. S. states • Size of government – more government/bureaucrats, more corruption) • Culture - Moralistic culture, less corruption (as Elazar suggests) • Initiative process: why? • Campaign finance laws: why? • What did not matter: Education, public sector salaries, Turnout/Party competition

Corruption across countries • Why is corruption higher in some countries than others? Studies have shown that, as in my study of the U. S. , greater urbanization is associated with greater corruption across countries Greater economic development (wealth) – less corruption (as in my study)

More on corruption in cross-national perspective Across countries, the “longevity” of democracy, higher voter turnout, and high party competition are associated with lower corruption - these factors vary more across countries than within the U. S. and matter for levels of corruption cross-nationally

Measurement issues *Use conviction/indictment reports (from Dep’t of Justice) *Use perceptions (state and crossnational) Also: difficulty of comparing across nations (what is acceptable in one country may be culturally less so in another country)