How Bribery and Corruption Can Be Understood as Public Issues - Essay Example

Models of the Sociological Imagination: How a Personal Problem can be understood as a Public Issue How Bribery and Corruption can be understood as Public Issues Introduction Either corruption or bribery begins with a thought within an individual, where it manifests itself as a persona problem, and eventually matures to a public issues. In my previous essay, I narrated how I found myself in an encounter with bribery, where I had to bribe a police officer for speeding to escape a speeding ticket. By the end of the say, I realized how my personal trouble eventually results into a public problem and affects the whole government. In this essay, however, further analysis will be presented to expound further on how these two issues that I consider my personal troubles are actually issues of the larger public. Here, the analysis will focus on the characteristics of various sociological factors in both micro and macro levels and how they impact bribery and corruption to make them real public issues. Culture and Corruption To begin with, corruption and bribery are social vices that are majorly impacted by the sociological factors at the micro level. By this it means that such factors like culture, religion and socialization of individuals have a substantial effect on corruption and bribery occurring in the public domain. Culture has been adversely described as a set of beliefs and norms followed by a society to lead them into a specific equilibrium. Similarly, another definition considers culture to be described as beliefs, values, orientation, attitudes as well as the underlying assumptions that are mostly exercised among people in a society. It is a common act that cultural aspects have a great impact on the pervasiveness of both bribery and corruption in a given country as it has been analyzed in a number of studies (Lambsdorff, Causes and consequences of corruption:What do we know from a crosssection of countries? In: S. Rose-Ackerman, ed., 2006). Here, a decisive role is played not only by religious views and authority acceptance, but also by acknowledging family values and the multilateral consideration and respect for ownership and foreign cultures. Such aspects act by shaping one’s mindset and possibly drive people towards corrupt behaviors. Following these principles, it is vivid that cultural values usually take a better part of controlling and dictating how institutions are function, their modes of operation and goals. The social actors then draw on them and select actions as the evaluate events and people and try give explanations or justifications for their actions (Lambsdorff, The institutional economics of corruption and reform: Theory, evidence and policy. , 2007). For these explanations, in case a culture is one that tolerates bribery and corruption, such vices could be seen to be more frequent in such societies as they are socially justified. Religion and Corruption On the other hand, religious traditions have also been found to influence the occurrence of bribery and corruption to a certain extent. As it is a finding, it is considered that Protestants traditions are associated with low levels of perceived corruption. In a more hierarchical system, religion has played an important role in shaping social attitudes towards the social hierarchy as well as social values, hence the acceptability of corrupt practices and bribery can be determined. In this light, those religions that are dominated by hierarchical stares are usually more prone to corruption than those that are less hierarchized. This is so because of the combination of both institutional efficiency and the lower individuals. It is not enough to say that corruption is directly impacted by religion, but also that it imposes an indirect effect on how governmental leverage is operated from the legal point of view. It is arguable that there’s a dampening effect on the spread of corruption and bribery by the protestant traditions. Socialization and Corruption It is an inherent fact that those who socialize in the same caliber usually have a lot in common. Such people share a lot and also have closer relationship to each other as they have each other’s sympathy wen it is required. For this reason, one will find that corruption levels amongst those socializing together is higher than those outside the social network. For instance, one will find it easy to perform a corrupt deal to a fellow colleague just because they work together. Gender and Corruption Amongst the macro level sociological factors that impact corruption and bribery include gender, class and race. On the gender perspective, both masculinity and levels of power are considered to be the predictive factors of the corruption levels of a country (Park, 2003). According to these concepts, it is found that men are greedier, ruthless and aggressive than the women. For this reason, it is without any doubt that men are considered to be more corrupt and offer and receive bribes than women. Most studies have found women to engage less in corrupt activities (Swamy, Knack, Lee, & Azfar, 2001). It is also clear that a higher proportion of women, working population as well as the older people have lower affinity towards accepting bribes. In a society, low levels of corruption may cause a lot of restrictions on networks dominated by the makes, and provide a higher legal recourse for the women and as well as improved access to higher positions for them. In case of corrupt countries, it would be very difficult to establish and acknowledge women rights. If such are the conditions, women would contribute little by themselves to fight and do away with corruption. Class and Corruption Switching focus to class, it is a fact without any doubt that class comes with power levels. Those of higher social class in the society usually occupy higher levels of power in the same societies. As such, one would find such people to use their powers and positions in the society to bribe and receive bribes. For example, one will find that a manager in a given company belongs to a higher social class in the society. Given his position in the company as a manager, he might have the power to hire and fire, but under certain policies and laid down regulations. However, there are times when they tend to go about their duties of hiring and firing employees without considering these regulations. One will find that relative and those people with personal relationships with the manager will not go through normal recruitment process to obtain employment n the company. Such re elements and examples of how corruption in the society is affected by social class as well as power levels in our society. Race and Corruption At the same time, still at the macro level of sociological factors, race is also a major contributor of corruption in our society. This s usually more pronounced in cases where people of the same race find it easy to favor their fellows on the basis of color and originality. For instance, it has been reported that in most instance where a multinational company has found its way into the developing counties, if the company of foreign origin, it usually tends to give opportunities in the higher management to people from its race while ignoring the hosts. As such, the host will only have the opportunity at serve in the support level of staff which has a lower level pay. Those from the same race will be paid a lot of money as they will be favored to occupy higher positions in the company. This is a good example of how race promotes corruption in our society. Conclusion As I started, bribery and corruption were those personal issues that were troubling me. As I went ahead with the analysis, it became clearer that these issues that I considered personal troubles, are actually public issues. By considering the sociological factors both at the micro and macro levels, it has become clearer to me that bribery and corruption are more profound troubles that are deeply rooted into the human social life. They are greatly impacted by the cultures, religion and socialization factors of humans at the micro level and race, class and gender at the macro levels. In a nutshell, these problems are deeply rooted in our human nature and it takes the understanding of such sociological factors to deal with them. References Lambsdorff, J. G. (2006). Causes and consequences of corruption:What do we know from a crosssection of countries? In: S. Rose-Ackerman, ed. International Handbook on the Economics of Corruption, 3-51. Retrieved from http://www.econstor.eu/handle/10419/55031 Lambsdorff, J. G. (2007). The institutional economics of corruption and reform: Theory, evidence and policy. . Passau: Cambridge University Press. Park, H. (2003). Determinants of corruption: A cross-national analysis. Multinational Business Review, 11, 29-48. Retrieved from http://www.emeraldinsight.com/journals.htm?articleid=1926658&show=abstract Swamy, A., Knack, S., Lee, Y., & Azfar, O. (2001). Gender and Corruption. Journal of Development Economics, 64, 25-55. Retrieved from http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304387800001231 Read More