Political Carruption

Corruption is understood as everything from the paying of bribes to civil servants in return for some favour and the theft of public purses, to a wide range of dubious economic and political practices in which politicians and bureaucrats enrich themselves and any abusive use of public power to a personal end. The decisive role of the state is also reflected in most definitions of corruption.Corruption is conventionally understood, and referred to, as the private wealth seeking behaviour of someone who represents the state and the public authority, or as the misuse of public goods by public officials for private ends.
In other words, corruption is a particular (and, one could say, perverted) state society relation. On the one side is the state, that is the civil servants,functionaries, bureaucrats and politicians, anyone who holds a position of authority to allocate rights over (scarce) public resources in the name of the state or the government. Corruption is when these individuals are misusing the public power they are bestowed with for private benefit. The corrupt act is when this responsible person accepts money or some other form of reward, and then proceeds to misusehis official powers by returning undue favors. For instance, it is an act of corruption when a state official takes a bribe to render some public service that is supposed to be free of charge or demands more than the official cost of it.
Corruption also exists within and between private businesses, within nongovernmental organisations, and between individuals in their personal dealings, withoutany state agency or state official being involved. There is corruption also in the form of bribing, swindling, and mafia-methods within and between private businesses, there are treacherous individuals and disloyal employees also in private firms. This kind of corruption may even have repercussions into the political system as it destroys the public morale, and it may be symptomatic for the generaleconomic and moral development of a society.
Political corruption not only leads to the misallocation of resources, but it also affects the manner in which decisions are made because this type of corruption is the manipulation of the political institutions and the rules of procedure, and therefore it influences the institutions of government and the political system, and it frequently leads toinstitutional decay. Inge Amundsen in Political Corruption: An Introduction to the Issues,2009, say “Political corruption is a deviation from the rational-legal values and principles of the modern state, and the basic problem is the weak accountability between the governors and the governed. In particular in authoritarian countries, the legal bases, against which corrupt practices are usuallyevaluated and judged, are weak and furthermore subject to downright encroachment by the rulers” (p.4).
Corruption has a strong inclination for “collectivisation”. To keep quiet and gradually take part in the practice is usually much less costly than to blow the whistle, inform, and confront. A conspiracy between individuals is easily extended into a larger practice involving colleagues, partners,assistants, patrons and superiors. Instances of petty corruption may therefore develop into larger networks, cliques and medium-sized brotherhoods, and finally into large-scale institutionalized corruption if unchecked.
As corruption spreads, the social acceptance of it may also increase. When it is generally understood that there is a climate of corruption, still more people will believe it isinevitable and expected. In particular is corruption in high places contagious to lower level bureaucrats and other state agents, as these will follow the predatory examples of, or even take instructions from, their principals.
Providing monetary and other benefits to family and friends or using their authority to get advantages for themselves by the officers of high ranking is not uncommon....