CORRUPTION Syndromes of Corruption

124 Syndromes of Corruption
Influence Market countries. Property rights, corruption control, regulatory
quality, and overall government effectiveness receive mediocre to
poor ratings. Ratings for voice and accountability suggest that in the
Philippines and Russia, at least, the powerful are confronted by few
significant countervailing forces (table 6.1).
Oligarch and Clan ‘‘corruption’’: complex meanings
In rapidly changing societies with shaking institutional frameworks, connections
between wealth and power are very complex. Indeed, as we
move from Influence Market societies into Oligarch and Clan cases it
becomes more difficult to use the term ‘‘corruption’’ in clear-cut ways.
Laws and institutions are less clear and credible, and their uses are more
arbitrary; state-like functions such as protection of property and contract
enforcement are often provided by private figures. Often, the key is not
whether a particular action fits formal definitions of corruption devised
for societies with stronger institutions, but rather how people pursue and
defend economic and political gains in a setting of weak institutions,
major opportunities, and significant risk.
It was with those difficulties in mind (among others) that I conceptualized
corruption, in chapter 1, as a systemic problem rather than as a
discrete category of behavior. This chapter will examine several such
problems. For Russia I will focus upon corruption in processes of privatization
and economic ‘‘reform,’’ but those issues also require discussion
of organized crime and other activities that might elsewhere be defined as
private. The arbitrary and corrupt ways such ‘‘private’’ domains have
been created is a consequence of rapid liberalization and deeper institutional
weaknesses. In Mexico we will consider corruption as a force in
both legitimate (oil) and illegitimate (drug) markets, as well as in the PRI
political machine. In the Philippines the entrenched influence of regional
landholders is partly political, but their power and the weaknesses of the
state reflect deeper developmental issues and perpetuate specific kinds of
corruption. Together these three cases can help us understand a syndrome
of corruption quite different from those considered so far.
Russia: risky biznis
Corruption in Russia is pervasive, often organized along clan lines, harmful
to democratic and economic development, and at times linked to violence.
It is not, however, something new – nor are the mafiyas and politically wired
entrepreneurs who make the headlines. All have been influenced by post-
1991 developments, but all have roots in the Soviet past.