Teaching Comparative Government and Politics

Monday, November 08, 2010

Corruption and business and governance

New rankings suggest that corruption is a bigger problem in Russia than before. Does it matter or is that just how things are done?

Russian corruption takes on a life of its own

In Russia, the greased palm has overtaken the strong hand. For the past decade, Vladimir Putin, now the prime minister, has been building a tightly centralized, practically unaccountable political structure - a structure that tolerates and is highly susceptible to corruption. But now that corruption appears to have expanded beyond the Kremlin's control…

"Corruption is not a disease, it's a pain. It's a signal that something is not working efficiently," Georgy Satarov, head of the Indem Foundation in Moscow, said Tuesday.

That signal grew stronger Tuesday with the release of the 15th annual Transparency International report on corruption perceptions around the world, ranking nations from least to most corrupt. Russia slid from 146th place to 154th, out of 178 countries, and into a tie with Tajikistan, Papua New Guinea and several African nations…

In October, Medvedev launched a "Forward, Russia" campaign to fight corruption. But in July, he acknowledged that it had achieved no results. He laments that government ministers do not carry out his orders - the direct consequence, according to Yuli Nisnevich, chief researcher for Transparency International in Moscow, of a corrupt bureaucracy over which the external controls no longer hold sway.

There is no shortage of laws, instructions, orders or publications against corruption, Yelena Panfilova, director of the Moscow office of Transparency International, said. "But they don't work."

Russia has a long history of pulling strings and trading favors. "What do you mean by corruption?" asked Yevgeny Kovtun, a 48-year-old businessman. "I can help one man; after that, he helps me. Is that corruption? No, that's business."…

Sergei Markov, a political analyst and member of the lower house of parliament from the ruling United Russia party, said Russia's leaders have been tentative about fighting corruption because they don't want to upset the stability that the country has finally achieved. "Instability is the main threat to economic growth," he said. "And corruption is not contradictory with economic growth."…

"Investors won't pay attention to Transparency International," he said. "They pay attention to their own experience. Some of them are quite cynical. For some of them, corruption is good."

Corruption Perceptions Index 2010 Results

On a scale of 0 − 10 (from most to least corrupt):
Denmark is perceived as least corrupt with a score of 9.3
The UK is #20 at 7.6
China is #78 at 3.5
Mexico is #98 at 3.1
Nigeria is #134 at 2.4
Iran is #146 at 2.2
Russia is #154 at 2.1

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Labels: corruption, Russia