Corruption
Corruption is the abuse of entrusted power for private gain. It can be classified as grand, petty and political, depending on the amounts of money lost and the sector where it occurs.
Research analysis by Roberto Martínez B. Kukutschka
The United Nations recognises that democracy is the best way to bring about international peace, and research has proven that democratic countries do not go to war against each other. But right now, democracy is backsliding around the world – and corruption is one of its greatest antagonists.
> transparency.org/cpi-2022-corruption-fundamental-threat-peace-security
Corruption Perceptions Index
The Corruption Perceptions Index ranks 180 countries and territories by their perceived levels of public sector corruption, according to experts and business people. This year’s analysis shows corruption is more pervasive in countries where big money can flow freely into electoral campaigns and where governments listen only to the voices of wealthy or well-connected individuals.
> transparency.org/en/cpi/2022
Flipping the corruption myth
Corruption is by far not the main factor behind persisting poverty in the Global South.
Jason Hickel: Transparency International just released their Corruption Perceptions Index. It makes for a beguiling story, but it completely ignores the financial and political corruption that festers in the rich nations that come out looking so squeaky clean.
British secrecy jurisdictions facilitate the theft of trillions of dollars from global South countries. The fact that the UK is listed as one of the least corrupt countries in the world tells you all you need to know about what’s wrong with Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index.
> aljazeera.com/flipping-corruption-myth
Citations Needed Podcast
Episode 73: Western Media’s Narrow, Colonial Definition of “Corruption”
“The scale of corruption in Africa is daunting,” warns The Economist. “Corruption a Cause of Poverty in the Developing World,” DW tells us. “Why corruption is holding Africa back,” CNN laments. Everywhere we turn in elite media and halls of power, we are told the global South is poor, in part or in whole, due to rampant “corruption.”
But a closer look at the data – and any effort to put notions of corruption in their proper historical context – reveals our limited, racialized definition of corruption is the geopolitical equivalent of complaining about “black on black” crime. True in a limited, technical sense but, in practice, often functions as a victim-blaming red herring meant to avoid uncomfortable discussions of white supremacy, deliberate economic dispossession and a far greater global regime of corruption leveled by the super-wealthy.
This episode examines the extraction of trillions annually from the global South in illicit transfers of money through the exploitation of tax shelters, so-called “hot money”, interests on exploitative IMF loans, trade misinvoicing and a host of other routine and totally unscrutinized financial schemes.
We are joined today by anthropologist and author Jason Hickel.
> soundcloud.com/citationsneeded/episode-73-western-medias-narrow-colonial-definition-of-corruption