Political Corruption - Essay Example

Order No: 193724 Topic: What is the difference between political corruption and political scandal, why and how does political scandal occurs : 26-11-2007 Order No: 193724 Topic: What is the difference between political corruption and political scandal, why and how does political scandal occurs 1. Introduction The world is watching different monarchies; different shapes of government along with various political corruptions as well as political scandal in the modern time. As one of the oldest and most perplexing phenomena in human society, political corruption and scandal exist in almost every country in the contemporary world. Social scientists and policy makers have long been puzzled by the relationship between corruption and political and economic development and the question of how to effectively hold corruption and scandal. Conventional perception is that corruption harms rule of law, demoralizes the society, and inhibits economic growth. But it is more often assumed than tested and proven. And on the politics political scandal is a black spot which restrain the flow of development and create a haphazard situation on the society breaking the peace and harmony. 2. Corruption Corruption is a disease, a cancer that eats into the cultural, political and economic fabric of society, and destroys the functioning of vital organs. In the words of Transparency International, "Corruption is one of the greatest challenges of the contemporary world. It undermines good government, fundamentally distorts policy, leads to the misallocation of resources, harms the private sector and private sector development and particularly hurts the poor" (TI,1998). Corruption is found almost everywhere, but it is stubbornly entrenched in the poor countries of Sub-Saharan Africa, it is widespread in Latin America, it is deep-rooted many of the newly industrialized countries, and it is reaching alarming proportions in several of the post-communist countries. The issue of corruption has to some extent entered the political and economic sciences from the new interest in the role of the state in the developing world, and in particular from the idea that the state is an indispensable instrument for economic development. The 1997 World Development Report stated that An effective state is vital for the provision of the goods and services - and the rules and institutions - that allow markets to flourish and people to lead healthier, happier lives. Without it, sustainable development, both economic and social is impossible (The World Bank 1997). Political corruption not only leads to the misallocation of resources, but it also affects the manner in which decisions are made. As political corruption is the operation of illegal procedure of the various offices, it affects the institutions of the government as well as the political system and political ideology. Political corruption is more than a divergence from formal legal form of justice. It occurs when misdeeds and wrong doings take place in the proceedings and the ideology of the politics of a country. Some definitions of corruption also emphasize the point that the rulers as a group or class, or as an institution or organization, make unjustified use of their influence to extract resources for the benefit of the group as such. Many well-known and well documented cases of grand corruption have involved political parties (ruling parties in particular, but also prospective ruling parties), entire administrative bureaus, and national governments. 3. Scandal Etymologically Scandal means a behavior or an event that people think it morally or legally wrong and causes public feelings of shock or anger. It may be an action, work or event of a particular person and that work is regarded in the society as a wrong doing or it is seen from a negative angle. There is divergence of scandals and different philosophies exist regarding this matter. A scandal is a widely publicized occurrence involving allegations of bad behavior, dishonor, or moral infuriate. A scandal may be based on reality, or the product of false allegations, or a fusion of both. Classes of scandals include by the following figure :( scandal) Figure: 1 Classes of scandals and its Spread out Source: Made By the Researcher Scandal, by definition of a disgraceful or discernible action, refers to a great many of negative things which brings to people not only objective understanding of circumstances but also passive perspective of human beings approach toward life and future. In terms of this, only through striking a balance between the two aspects of scandals influences can we get the access to knowing the word more rationally and therefore pace forward to a better status with a get-up-and-go heart. 4. Political Corruption Corruption, in political terms, is defined as "abuse of public office for private gain". It simply means the abuse of government officials of their powers for illegitimate, usually secret, private enrichment (National, 2006). All forms of government are susceptible to political corruption and forms of corruption vary, but it often include bribery, extortion, cronyism, nepotism, patronage, graft, and embezzlement (National, 2006). Criminal enterprise such as drug trafficking, money laundering, and trafficking are often facilitated by the practice of corruption. In severely corrupted countries of the world corruption is a common phenomena of the society. It may be said that corrupted government is arule of theves. Ppolitical corruption can be for private purposes and group improvement, and for power preservation purposes. These three forms of political corruption are often connected. The larger and graver political corruption and scandals comprise both processes - accretion on the one hand and the misuse of public money for political purposes on the other. 5. Political Scandal A political scandal is a scandal in which politicians or government officials engage in differents illegal, corrupt, or unethical practices and it can involve the breaking of the nation's laws or plotting to do so (New York Times ). A widely accepted definition of political scandal, by Stephen Bornstein is that it occurs "when important public figures are widely suspected of contravening prevailing standards of acceptable public or private behaviors and often of attempting to conceal their actions through further illegal or deceitful acts as well" (Brlsi). The reference to private behaviors is debatable and private scandals are not often taken into consideration of political scandal but occasionally by various catalysts it turns into political scandal. Political scandal is now a day is very much common in the countries of the world including the first world country to the third world country. It seems incontrovertible that political scandals have now acquired a prominent and important place in political life and there are no signs that their political significance is likely to diminish (Williams, 1998). 6. Why Political Scandal Occurs It is not important in how scandals emerge, what causes them, or who instigates them. Political scandals is significant even if they do not affect electoral results, or if their effects are ephemeral. Without a doubt, scandals affect public mentality, which then translate into political capital. Political capital is often effective when the government desires to introduce an unpopular law with short-term costs and long-term benefits, such as health care or social security reforms other works of government .Sometimes scandals are mere creation of the media. they often create it for their benefit or to increase the number of audience. Scandal revelations, especially those produced by the press, may be due in part to the audience-building strategies of the media. Dissenting views, in contrast, may possibly be offered as a result of the media's own legitimation needs. Stories of scandal serve to undermine institutions in the public's mind and can often provoke the setting up of government and parliamentary committees leading to the regulation of particular activities (Tumber, 2004). 7. Role of Media In creating scandal media's role is very important. It is the media which brings the scandal into lime light and to the people. Scandal is more effective and buzzing when it is published in the print media. The famous scandals are often the fuel for running the media popularity. So the role of media in scandal is very much important. 8. Political Scandal in Different Contexts of the World No country is immune from corruption, the report says, citing the lax controls over political financing in Greece, the close connection between companies and the Bush administration and the unchallenged power of Italy's prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, over his country's media (Denny, 2004). Different countries in the world have a different way in which the scandals occur. What attractive is that most scandals implicate some big pots in political history. Example1: President Thomas Jefferson in the sex scandal with Sally Hemings Example 2: Former National Security Adviser Rear Admiral John Ms and his involvement in 1986s military Iran-Contra affair. All these examples can be cited as the scandals of famous people. And it, provides ordinary people a good offer to inspect famous people's life more deeply and thus the multitude can resort to legislation to supervise the power of these people. 9. International Endeavor Against Corruption Transparency International Calls for Action to Enforce the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention Existence of Convention is a Success but a true Victory against Bribery Requires Full Implementation Berlin/Rome, 21 November 2007 "This has been the most significant and groundbreaking international convention aimed at shortening the bribery of foreign government officials by multinational corporations and it is a success to have it," said TI Chair Huguette Labelle. She also stressed, "We need to use this tenth anniversary to urge the more than 20 countries with little or no implementation to take stroke. Victory will come only with full achievement." Labelle's comments replicate the concerns of TI's global movement with national chapters in almost 100 countries. During its annual membership meeting held in late October, the TI movement adopted a declaration stating that the future of the OECD Convention is in doubt due to a serious lacuna of political commitment by over half the signatory governments. Transparency International calls on the signatory governments represented in Rome today to (Anti-Bribery Convention, 2007): Take action at the Ministerial level to ensure that lagging governments comply without further delay; Prevent the use of national security considerations as a reason for not prosecuting foreign bribery; and, Maintain a vigorous monitoring programme until there is active enforcement by all signatories. 10. Political Scandal in British Context There are several scandals which prevail in British history. British author William Simpson, who wrote the 2006 authorized biography of Prince Bandar (TBR News, 2007), The Prince--The Secret Story of the World's Most Intriguing Royal, on the other hand, provided authoritative details "right from the prince's mouth" that should be of great interest to American Justice Department and Congressional investigators (Steinberg, 2007). What Simpson hinted at is perhaps the biggest covert Anglo-American slush fund in history --one that the author openly acknowledged had been used to fund clandestine wars, including the Afghantsi Mujahideen war against the Soviet Army in Afghanistan, and other covert military actions in Africa. In the following there are two examples. Example-1 (BBC, 2006): The 42-year-old MP has ended speculation over his political future by announcing he will not contest his Winchester seat. He was forced to quit the party's front bench in January after admitting a relationship with a male prostitute. Days earlier married Mr. Oaten quit his party's leadership contest citing a lack of support from colleagues. The former Lib Dem home affairs spokesman has said he wants to change careers when he stands down and concentrate on development issues. Example-2 (BBC, 2001): Jo Moore, within an hour of the 9/11 attacks, Moore sent an email to the press office of her department suggesting: It's now a very good day to get out anything we want to bury. Councillors' expenses Although prior to the catastrophic collapse of the towers, the phrase "a good day to bury bad news" (not actually used by Moore) has since been used to refer to other instances of attempting to hide one item of news behind a more publicised issue. 11. Conclusion Political corruption and political scandal are matter of comprehensive analysis of political accountability for highly-publicized alleged government misconduct (Barker, 1997). Do scandals erode public support for the government only, or does this negativity translate into cynicism towards the legitimacy of the whole system (Ansolabehere and Iyengar, 1997). This is a novel approach, which lifts the boundaries amongst traditions exploring disparate types of responsibility, and provides multidimensional and interactive concept of government accountability. It comprises three major levels and explores the dealings between them. The study examined how informal reputation accountability is affected by the practice of official accountability, how horizontal accountability affects vertical accountability, and how structural, institutional accountability reflects on the agency and answerability of political actors. Accountability and how structural, institutional accountability reflects on the agency and accountability of political actors. Political corruption and political scandal in the modern world holds significance and this topic deserves great value. 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" Suharto, Marcos and Mobutu head corruption table with $50bn scams", The Guardian, Fri. Mar. 26, 2004. Kjellberg, Francesco. (1994). "Conflict of interest, corruption or (simply) scandals: The "Oslo case" 1989-91", Crime, Law and Social Change, Vol. 22, No. 4. Dec. 1994. pp. 339-360. http://www.ceeol.com/aspx/getdocument.aspxlogid=5&id=F1178D61-6DFC-46AA-B565-1CEDCF0F5514 National Library Board, "Corruption, Governance and Growth", Sep. 13, 2006. http://dl.nlb.gov.sg/digitalk/2006/09/corruption_governance_and_grow.html Scandal.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scandal Steinberg, Jeffrey. (2007). "Will BAE Scandal of Century Bring Down Dick Cheney", The Executive Intelligence Review. June 29, 2007. http://www.larouchepub.com/other/2007/3426bae_cheney.html TBR News. 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