Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index
(2015) saw Spain’s position falling to 36—a two point fall compared to its 2014
ranking, making it one of the worst ranking European countries[1].
The three biggest corruption scandals in Spain reveal some
underlying aspects of Spain’s media, business and social culture that have
contributed to its deteriorating moral fabric. Take the case of Princess
Cristina and her husband, for instance. The princess was accused of having
collaborating with her husband in committing tax frauds. Her husband, as
president of Noos, a supposedly not-for-profit organisation, organised a series
of sporting events for two regional governments whom he hugely overcharged. Around
€1m was subsequently transferred to the princess and her husband from the Noos
foundation, for their personal expenses[2].
Political parties have also been mired in allegations of
corruption over the past decade. The Gurtel corruption case has been the centre
of all media attention since 2009. The Popular Party Government treasurer Luis
Barcenas, allegedly gave ministers an envelope each month containing between
€5,000 and €10,000 which came from a secret slush fund, subsidised by a ring of
businessmen in return for lucrative contracts[3].
The Gurtel case is not the only one in which the syndicate
between businesses and political parties has proven detrimental to the
integrity of Spain. In 2013, former urban planning adviser Juan Antonio Roca
along with 53 others was convicted in a cash-for-votes scandal, known as the
Malaya case. The case saw around €670m paid in bribes from municipal funds over
three years in the mid-1990s. Roca for over a decade, paid town hall officials
each time they voted to approve planning permits or contracts to provide municipal
services.
These cases very clearly indicate the practice of ‘revolving
door’ strategies—whereby high officials, elected or appointed, from the
government and the public administration, become board members of major
companies or vice versa. This clearly creates an atmosphere where individuals
use public office for personal gains.
Corruption in Spain can be studied through the cultural and
sociological aspect. In a survey by the Sociological Research Center, 60
percent of those polled believed that corruption is just a “part of human
nature” and more than one-third believe that it is “part of Spanish culture”[4]. A sociological argument for Spain’s
corruption also proposes that Catholicism (the dominant religion in Spain) with
all its scope for confession and absolution, makes sinning not a fatal
activity, but something that can be worked around[5].
Another interesting theory, the ‘Allegiance theory’, posits that in Spain and
other southern European countries people often look after the immediate and
extended family before the greater good of society. This attitude incentivizes
corruption even at the most basic level of social organization[6].
The recent elections revealed that many politicians were
able to cling on to their seats despite charges of corruption against them. The
solution to the problem therefore needs to integrate the social with the political
and the economic.
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