Political Corruption in Africa - Dissertation Example

TABLES AND FIGURESTable 1 - Features of Qualitative and Quantitative Methods 7Table 2 - Most Corrupt Nations 20Table 3 - Index of Economic Freedom 25FIGUREFigure 1 - World's Most and Least Corrupt Nations 18AbstractPolitical corruption is a malaise that has infected governments since the Roman Empire as power corrupts.

The damage inflicted by corrupt officials reflects on the believability of government, and impacts the populace, with the degree of the foregoing dependent upon the extent of corruption ingrained in its leadership and institutions. This study shall examine corruption, focusing on Africa, to determine if there are ways in which to stem the increasing wave of malpractice that has and is gripping our moral fiber. Through an investigation of political corruption, this examination shall seek to uncover its variations, forms, used and abuses, equating the conditions that foster its use, and th mechanisms to stem corruption in government.1.0 IntroductionIn equating the subject matter of this study, political corruption lies at the core of this examination.

The subject, political corruption, as described by Harris (2003, p. 1)" is a multifaceted and mutable concept, defiant of precise or comprehensive definition". In delving into the context, Lasswell (1958, p. 6) starts off the process by defining "politics as the art of who gets what, when, and how". When one considers the definition of corruption as "The act of the process of corrupting The state of being corrupt" (Houghton. According to the research findings the bounds of political corruption skirt bribery, certain forms of patronage, conflict of interest, extortion, nepotism, graft, embezzlement, and cronyism for their individual and or collective illegitimate gain.

The preceding can and does give rise to a broad number of actions that facilitates the preceding as represented by the encouragement and or turning a blind eye to drug trafficking as well as money laundering and human trafficking. As the paper stresses corruption in some countries and regions of the world is so rampant that it is an expected by product of interaction, that is sometimes referred to a ‘kleptocracy’, which means, ‘rule by thieves’. The foregoing has been delved into in order to provide the understanding of the wide range of ramifications that encompass political corruption as an examination.

As such, the Aim of this study is to examine the issues of political corruption from an international comparative perspective, focusing on Africa a region where the preceding is rife. The foregoing multiple Objectives are closely intertwined. The argument of this study seeks to examine the existing measures that are in sub-Saharan Africa to combat political corruption, and the extent to which these are effective and or ineffective and why such measures seem unlikely to become utilised as a result of the fact that the instruments for combating political corruption do not have corresponding governance systems that have the abilities and or capabilities to monitor as well as implement such provisions.