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The Culture of Corruption

The ethical grounds of stealing from the state.

States all over the world are doing their best to tackle corruption (or try to appear doing their best, in any case). At the same time, international organisations (such as the World Bank, the IMF and so on) speak of it as if it is a deadly social decease.

But in those states where corruption rates are high, citizens seem to be more than unwilling to change the traditional ways of doing things, despite what they profess in public.

For those who see things through a predominantly rational perspective, this behaviour can be better explained as a result of cost/benefit calculations. People calculate the cost between, for example, paying their taxes or bribing the taxman and conclude they would be better off if they tried the latter.

Human beings cannot engage in rule breaking behaviour if they are not able to, somehow, justify their actions to themselves and others.

In those places where corruption reigns supreme, bending the rules is not simply a matter of personal interest but also a deeply embedded societal norm. There is such a thing as a culture of corruption and inside that peculiar social space, doing things the right way is actually considered wrong!

Imagine the following scene. You are driving on the highway when a traffic police officer stops you for speeding. He checks your papers and informs you of your violation. But it is taking him too much time to write the ticket. For some reason, he seems to be stalling as if he is waiting for something. At last you realise he is simply waiting to be bribed.

It is, of course, in your own interest to give him 20 euros and get over with it. The ticket costs five or six times more. But saying that the whole deal was simply a successful transaction does not begin to describe what is going on between you.

Because the police officer expects to be bribed, it is, in a very subtle but nevertheless essential way, impolite not to bribe him. He is offering you a gift and expects a gift in return. There is no human culture where refusing a gift exchange is not considered an insulting gesture.

There is, for sure, a slight problem with this on-the-road gift exchange. That is the fact that what he is offering is not really his to offer. The money from your fine goes to the state, so while this business arrangement is clearly to the benefit of both, it is to the detriment of the state which is the rightful owner of the ticket money.

But would it be too far fetched to say that, at the same time, he is not letting the state come between you? You can always choose to pay the fine and refuse to bribe him. As long as he doesn’t harass you for not getting what he wanted, it is up to you whether you want to accept or refuse his gift.

If this is not very persuasive so far, imagine it the other way round. After you have had enough experience with highway corruption when another officer stops you for speeding you are, by now, used in doing things the good old way, so you immediately offer him a bribe. This time the officer refuses the money and threatens you with a bigger fine for trying to bribe him.

With a 90% probability what will cross through your mind this time will not be "Wow, at last, I found an honest traffic police officer”, but rather, “Wow, what is wrong with this guy”?

It is not simply the failed transaction and the threat that is bothering you. It is also the fact that by not accepting the bribe he seems to be taking his job very seriously, perhaps too seriously!

At the same time, he is not taking seriously enough the secret norms on interactions between police officers and speed violators. If he looks insulted you have the choice to look insulted back. If another, ‘normal’ police officer happens to be by overlooking the whole episode you can always give him a co-conspirator’s look and ask something like “Is he a newbie, or what?”

The culture of corruption is an underground one but this does not make it any less real. And as is the case with all cultural artifacts, people do not abide by the norms simply because it is to their interest, but also because they are used to it and maybe they even believe in them.

One very important element for such a culture to arise is a widespread understanding of the state as an institution that is not to be trusted. This is why, deep down, the officer might be thinking he is doing the violator a favour when he is proposing to mediate between him/her and the Leviathan. And this is also a reason why the violator may accept the mediation –cost/benefit calculations left aside.

This is even truer in more ordinary transactions, when people choose not to give receipts for their services and customers choose not to ask for them. Leaving the state outside business deals is not considered only economically beneficial but also ethically justified.

In this sense, in some cases it is considered the honest thing to be corrupt. Politicians who make personal favours to citizens in their constituency are regarded as local heroes, giving the good fight to keep funds and jobs from moving to somewhere else. They are also seen as men or women of honour who make good of their promises and take care of their friends.

This is especially true of smaller places where there are close social networks that one needs to upkeep. Bringing in the state in one’s family business is the wrong thing to do, much like filing a law suit against a relative.

But what are the consequences of all this? What difference does it make if corruption has a cultural side and is not simply a matter of selfish calculations?

For one, this means that tackling the problem of corruption is not as easy as liberal international institutions and economists might think. It is not simply a matter of punishment and reward, negative and positive inducements, of figuring out the right balance between carrots and sticks.

It is about fighting the belief that corruption is an ultimate act of resistance against more organised and systematised forms of corruption that are sponsored by those very (state and international) institutions that propagate its demise.

by Alexis Charitos