How Does a Committed Government Reduce the Extent and Impact of Political Corruption - Assignment Example

How Does A Committed Government Reduce The Extent And Impact Of Political Corruption? Introduction Corruption develops from tensions and forces within a political system. Corruption patterns represent channels of communicating political demands in a society that its members require to survive. Therefore, some political analysts view corruption as an informal political system. Failures within a political system have a larger contribution to corruption relative to structural deficiencies, individual behavior or lack of ethics in a society. The functional school of corruption indicates that corruption develops in a society to serve a function in the government system that is lacking. This means that corruption has some political and social benefits. Corruption serves some short-term and self-serving government functions that relevant authorities have failed to attend to efficiently (de Leon 1993, p. 20-30). Corruption guarantees speed and favorable outcomes to individuals. It minimizes costs that one would incur if legitimate procedures were followed. The nature of the relationship between the government and society make corruption attractive and tempting to individuals. When government’s goods and services are difficult to access, individuals and organizations will turn to illegal means of obtaining the goods and services. The illegal channels seem to guarantee easy and assured access to goods and services. Although its individuals that actually engage in corrupt activities, political corruption is a phenomenon affecting systems and institutions in a country (de Leon 1993, p. 20-30). Political corruption is a threat to democracy in any country. Anticorruption has been a major issue in many countries in the recent years and many of the anticorruption initiatives have failed (Mungiu-Pippidi 2006, p. 86). This paper discusses some of the strategies that committed governments can use to minimize the effects and extent of political corruption. How to Reduce the Extent and Impact of Political Corruption Moore (2001) indicates that political underdevelopment in many countries stems from low dependence of elites on citizens. This low dependence on citizens is brought about by economic and political inequalities between states. Poor countries’ political underdevelopment is to a large extent shaped by their interactions with wealth nations. Poor nations need to reduce their dependence on foreign aid and tax themselves more. The governments in these nations should have a larger share of the Gross National Product in form of taxes. Increased tax revenues will enable the governments in poor nations to eliminate poverty and inequalities. Anticorruption initiatives have failed in many countries because they are not political. Developing economies and post communists countries are facing political corruption but they are using nonpolitical measures to reduce this form of corruption (Mungiu-Pippidi 2006, p. 86). Many of the anticorruption initiatives do not touch on the roots of corruption which lie in distribution of power. In many countries, the individuals in power are expected to implement anticorruption strategies yet implementing such strategies would mean that some of them loose their positions. Consequently, anticorruption initiatives fail and the only way they can be implemented is if this role is allocated to an independent body or authority. Fighting corruption in a country has to involve internal and external forces to be successful. The government cannot fight particularism, which is the most common form of political corruption in many countries. The international community should be persistent in their calls for accountability and transparency in governments. Governments on the other hand should yield to such calls and embrace transparency in all their operations (Mungiu-Pippidi 2006, p. 98). Transparency in government gives citizens confidence in their political systems and they are likely to follow the right procedures when seeking for government goods and services. Another strategy that governments can use to reduce political corruption is to reduce the number of citizens that are dependent on the government. This means that governments should minimize the number of employees that are on their payrolls. When the number of citizens that are dependent on the state is small, the government has command and control over fewer resources. It is easier to manage and fairly distribute fewer resources. A government that is committed to fighting political corruption should encourage free and fair competition in every sector. Unfair competition sometimes pushes organizations and individuals to engage in corrupt dealings to remain competitive in their respective industries (Mungiu-Pippidi 2006, p. 98). Bratton and Van de Walle (1994, p. 453) examine the political systems in Africa and argue that preexisting regimes have an effect on political transitions. This means that political changes in a country depend on the leadership approaches adopted by previous regimes. For instance, many African countries have had authoritarian leaders who established rules on the members of society that can participate in making decisions. These rules have formed the prevailing political systems. The rules form a political regime, which influences the probability of changing the established rules in future. The resultant political regime also determines whether state elites and masses can manage to influence change on the established rules or introduce new rules. Political regimes also determine whether political transitions are democratic and fair. Regimes also influence government’s decisions to accommodate the views of citizens and negotiate with them on establishing new rules. This implies that the extent to which a government succeeds in eliminating corrupt political systems depends on its willingness and capacity to disregard the rules that were established in previous regimes. Such rules could be a hindrance to fighting corruption and negotiating with the public on a new way of operations. As indicated earlier, the nature of relations between the government and its citizens has an influence on the level of corruption in the country. Rules from dictatorial regimes do not allow for negotiations between the government and the masses. If the government is unwilling to walk away from the approaches of previous regimes and establish new rules, it is unlikely to succeed in fighting corruption (Bratton & Van de Walle 1994, p. 453). Fighting corruption requires an accurate estimation of its cost. Estimating the cost of corruption is difficult and this limits the efforts of international and national bodies to mobilize leaders to fight corruption. This means that without accurate statistics on the impact of corruption on a country’s expenditures, it is difficult to convince the public and political leaders in a country to support policies that fight corruption. Another limitation to fighting corruption is that corruption is domestic and political leaders manage to convince international bodies such as IMF and the World Bank that they will not tolerate corruption. The international bodies will then pull out of such countries to allow them to deal with corruption through their internal processes. Unfortunately, these governments do not keep their promises but tolerate corruption. Instead, they develop new policies that limit the operations of international authorities in their domestic affairs. However, there is need for increased international pressure on countries that rank high in corruption despite their policies to limit international forces in their domestic operations (Bonzom 1997). One way that IMF and the World Bank can use to push developing countries to fight corruption is to change their terms of borrowing funds until the countries demonstrate a certain level of transparency. This implies that both international and national forces are needed in a country to fight corruption. The role of the government in this case would be to cooperate with international bodies and keep their end of the bargain where corruption is concern. If a government promises not to tolerate corruption, it should keep the promise at all costs. If international bodies develop policies and new rules on borrowing funds for corrupt countries, their governments should comply with such rules (Bonzom 1997). Many developing countries have assumed that economic liberalization and democratization can help them alienate corruption. Most of their anticorruption strategies have focused on implementing reforms in their institutions to discourage the public from engaging in corrupt dealings. Developing countries have also sought anticorruption strategies that involve the contribution of the international communities. However, there is little empirical evidence if any that these strategies have been successful in eliminating corruption. Most of these countries are still ranked high in corruption statistics. This means that these strategies alone cannot eliminate corruption complete. There is need for a holistic approach to dealing with political corruption instead of relying on one or a few anticorruption strategies. Economic liberalization is effective in reducing corruption among the state elites. However, this strategy should be combined with monitoring and regulation of institution reforms to ensure that the same elites are not the major beneficiaries of the reforms (Robinson 1998, p. 1-14). Lack of alternative economic opportunities limits the efforts of government to reduce corruption. Governments that are committed to eliminating corruption should facilitating the growth and development of alternative sources of income and employment. This will reduce the reliance on the public sector for formal employment and income. Political reforms and competition could help in reducing corruption. However, governments should closely monitor such reforms and competition to ensure that state elites do not take advantage of them to advance their corrupt dealings. Democratic structures can reduce corruption as well but their effectiveness depends on the organization of citizens. When citizens are well organized, their actions complement institutional reforms that are geared towards reducing corruption. The international community can also complement anticorruption initiatives by rejecting any illegal trade activities with other countries (Robinson 1998, p. 1-14). Many governments rely on financial aid from the World Bank and thus, the institution has a significant role to play in helping such governments to fight corruption. Some of the supportive strategies that the World Bank can use to assist countries fight corruption include preventing any form of fraud and corruption in the projects that it finances. Other strategies include offering support to countries that request for help in fighting corruption and adding its voice to international efforts of reducing corruption in different countries. The World Bank should consider incorporating corruption issues when making decisions on financial assistance to countries. This will push countries to make reforms and develop policies that will reduce corruption so that they can benefit from financial aid from the World Bank (World Bank 1997). Governments on the hand have a role to play to ensure that the efforts of international institutions such as the World Bank are effective in their respective countries. Governments should cooperate with international institutions and develop any necessary policies or institutions as recommended by international institutions to reduce corruption. Africa suffers the worst form and consequences of corruption. The high level corruption in this continent involves misusing public resources, offices, and responsibilities for the private sector. One hindrance to fighting corruption in Africa is clientelism, which is used by political leaders to establish an electoral system that guarantees their access to public resources. Consequently, there is increased competition for power and control of resources. The governments in this continent need to address clientelism and this can be done by redefining politics. African politics should shift from the distribution and sharing of public resource to governance and social justice. Without such a shift, African governments are unlikely to succeed in fighting corruption (Szeftel 2000: Bayart 2000, p. 217). Parsons (1997) examine the ideologies introduced by Wax Weber of building relationships between the state and the citizens. These ideologies suggest that public officials are simply legitimate channels of establishing relations between the state and its citizens. Thus, public officials cannot participate in distort such relationships. However, these ideologies are not applicable to the current political systems. Political systems, government policies, and actions are not transparent. Developing countries can learn from industrialized countries how to manage their civil servants. Advanced industrialized countries have adopted effective approaches to managing their civil service including decentralizing this function. Decentralizing civil service makes it more responsive to public demands. Other advanced economies have maintained their traditional approaches to managing their civil service but have engaged in continuous improvements to ensure that the approaches are effective and transparent. The best starting point for reforming countries would be to adopt a centralized approach to civil service management. This is because these countries require resources such as human resources and technology to improve their civil service. Decentralization requires a larger amount of resources compared to a centralized system, which may not be readily available to developing economies. This implies that developing and reforming countries can centralize their civil service to increase its transparency and reduce corruption. These countries should prioritize staff recruitment and personnel establishment control to improve their civil service (Nunberg 1994). Governments can improve their effectiveness in reducing corruption by shifting from patronage to merit as a guide to their selection procedures. Thus, governments must predetermine the importance of merits and eliminate any form of institutional discrimination. A shift to merits is particularly important to fighting corruption in developing countries. In these countries, there is a common manifestation of corruption in terms of abusing public offices when making appointments. Appointment procedures should not discriminate any individuals but instead, they should be based on merit of the interested individuals (McCourt 2000). Many political analysts and researchers in the area of political corruption have argued that conditionality is important to fighting corruption. However, Buiter (2005) disagrees with this point of view and argues that country ownership is outdated and inappropriate in the current political environment. Country ownership is an aspect of conditionality that involves national and international parties. In most cases conditionality is attached to programmes and plans between countries and IMF, the World Bank and Regional Development Banks. These international bodies under the country ownership ideology will only establish programmes, plans or strategies with countries that meet their conditions. In the case of corruption, these countries must meet the terms of the international bodies on reducing corruption. Buiter (2005) argues that this aspect has been misused in the past and thus, it has lost its effectiveness in reducing corruption among other objectives. Politicians, clienteles, voters and bureaucrats make decisions on whether to engage in corruption based on the incentives, opportunities and costs involved. Such an evaluation is aimed at establishing the benefits that an individual will gain for engage in corruption if costs are minimized (Caiden 1979). Caiden’s point of view implies that government can focus their anticorruption strategies on reducing or minimizing the opportunities and incentives of corruption and increasing the costs. This will discourage individuals from engaging in corruption because its costs will be higher than its benefits. The idea is to make corruption unattractive to citizens and political leaders. A report submitted by Commission on Africa (2005) indicated that African leaders bear the responsibility of improving accountability in their respective countries. As indicated earlier, African countries face the worst form of corruption and their leaders cannot delegate or pass the responsibility of dealing with corruption to another body. This implies that political leaders in African cannot depend on the actions on international bodies and non-governmental organizations to deal with corruption. In fact, most forms of corruption in Africa are supported by the prevailing political systems and they can only be eliminated through political processes (Commission on Africa 2005). African leaders can improve accountability and reduce corruption by encouraging increased participation of citizens in government process. Such process should not be left to civil servants only but should involve ordinary people as well. This means that the public should have a significant contribution to the management and implementation of government processes. Another strategy that African leaders can use to fight corruption is strengthening their institutions such as parliament, trade unions, judicial systems, and the media among others. When such institutions are strengthened, their voices against corruption have a significant impact in reducing its spread within the country. Strong institutions can make recommendations on how to reduce corruption and implementing proposed strategies to reduce the vice. For instance, a strong judicial system will ensure that perpetrators of corruption are persecuted and punished. Consequently, the incentives to corruption will be reduced (Commission on Africa 2005). Strengthen institutions in a country especially a developing country requires financial assistance from international funds. International bodies such as the World Bank can assist developing countries to fight corruption by offering financial aid for strengthening institutions. Donors can offer either financial assistance or help such countries to establish transparent budgeting systems for public funds. Such transparent systems will create confidence among citizens in government processes and encourage them to shun illegal dealings. Developed countries can help developing countries to reduce political corruption by repatriating any assets that political leaders in developing countries have stolen from their people. International banks can disclose any suspicious accounts held by political leaders and assist the African masses in demanding for transparent systems of governance (Commission on Africa 2005). One major limitation to anticorruption initiatives is that they focus on institutions and political leaders that encourage corruption or actively participate in corruption. However, for governments to be successful in eliminating corruption, they must adopt a holistic approach to the process and develop strategies that incorporate the public. Citizens encourage the expansion of corruption by giving bribes. Governments should deal with such citizens and not limit their initiatives to their leaders. Governments should also ensure that organizations that engage in corruption face the rule of law. As long as political corruption exists in a country, other necessary reforms are hard to implement and their impact is limited. Thus, governments should pursue all means possible to reduce the extent and impact of political corruption in their countries (Commission on Africa 2005). Conclusion Corruption stems from tensions and forces in a political system. Corruption is associated with costs and benefits as it serves a lacking government function in society. However, corruption limits democracy and successful reforms in a country. Governments have various strategies that they can use to reduce corruption. However, governments must adopt a holistic approach to fighting corruption and combine different strategies. Some of these strategies include institutional and political reforms, strengthening institution, reducing dependence on state and increased taxation rates. The international community has a key role to play in assisting other countries to fight corruption and governments should collaborate with such efforts. Fighting political corruption requires a political approach which could be limited if fighting corruption is left to political leaders who are the major beneficiaries. Citizens and non-government organizations should actively participate in fighting corruption. Governments should create better relations with their citizens and encourage their participation in government processes. The political leaders in developing countries can borrow some ideas from developed countries on how to fight corruption. The government plays a key role in reducing corruption in any country and thus, it should not delegate this responsibility to any other authority or institution. 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