CORRUPTION Syndromes of Corruption

5 Elite Cartels: how to buy friends
and govern people
Introduction
Sometimes corruption is less a matter of influence than of control. Where
interlocking groups of top politicians, business figures, bureaucrats, military
and ethnic leaders share corrupt benefits among themselves they can
build networks and alliances that solidify their power and stave off the
opposition. Corruption of this sort may well be highly lucrative, but it is
also a strategy for forestalling political change.
These Elite Cartel practices may outwardly resemble Influence
Markets: money and favors change hands, with benefits flowing to
favored people and businesses. Most societies involved are relatively
stable, middle-income or affluent democracies, or are well along in the
consolidation process. Perceived levels of corruption, while higher than in
Influence Market societies, remain lower than in Oligarchs and Clans, or
Official Moguls, cases. Civil society and for accountability, while weaker
than in Influence Market societies, are far from negligible.
But differences become apparent at the level of Elite Cartel countries’
institutions. Political regimes have been in place for shorter periods of time,
and institutions are weaker, than those of Influence Market societies.
Inequality is more pronounced, and economies are more dependent upon
primary exports, and thus upon global commodity markets. Leaders in
these societies face political competition that is growing faster, is less institutionalized,
and is thus comparatively unpredictable. Judiciaries are weak
and often compromised, making contracts more difficult to enforce and
property rights harder to protect. Political parties have shallow roots – often
embodying contending elite followings rather than representing major segments
of society – and political competition both at and between elections
can be treacherous. Bureaucracies are large and permeable – in some cases,
extensions of political factions – and are uncertain agents of policy implementation.
Elites thus face many risks and uncertainties.
For those reasons the core function of Elite Cartel corruption is to
protect, as well as to enrich, networks of higher-level elites. Deals take
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