CORRUPTION; abuse of position, function, authority and/or power in politics, economy, judiciary, healthcare, education, science or any other social field for personal material (money, art, valuable gifts...) or non-material (for example service that is returned) interest.
Corruption is a ubiquitous social phenomenon that interlinks the entire social structure, from the micro to the macro level, and the consequence is the weakening of values that are of public interest due to personal exploitation. Research on the prevalence of corruption shows that it is a global, systemic problem from which no part of the world, regardless of differences, is exempt, and this criterion is also taken as an important factor when defining the state of democracy in a country.
The short-term and medium-term consequences of corruption are reflected in the weaknesses of state and public institutions, non-transparent money flows, the general impoverishment of society... In the long term, corruption leads to an increase in distrust in the system and in its fundamental institutions and inaugurates the general logic of 'do what you know and can', which traces the road to powerlessness. This hard-to-solve problem is especially present in the so-called developing countries (the former 'third world' from the period of the so-called cold war), i.e. transitional societies. Although our areas know the practices of corruption from the period before transitional capitalism - not even the socialist system was immune to it - the 'original accumulation of capital' during the war and the processes of privatization in the transitional period expanded the scale of corruption to enormous proportions, to the very top of the government.
One of the symptoms that indicates the spread of corruption is the intensive production of regime rhetoric adorned with the discourse of legalism (e.g. 'let the institutions of the rule of law do their job'), which in practice is most often in an inversely proportional relationship with the ability and readiness of the judicial and executive authorities. to deal with this problem. In fact, it is often precisely the departments of the state - which should solve the problems of corruption, work on its prevention and suppression - that are breeding grounds for corruption practices. In Croatia, the region, and beyond, the most egregious case in this regard is the case of former Prime Minister Ivo Sanader and the court proceedings against him. When corrupt politics and an ineffective judiciary are joined by important and influential actors of the transition - corporations and banks with their powers and interests - corruption simply flourishes.
In criticisms of capitalism, the thesis that the system itself is corrupt at its core is often advocated, and that countries based on the political economy of capitalism are inevitably corrupt to a certain extent, even though the so-called regimes are not. of real socialism did not show better in that regard.
(portalnovosti.com)
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