(Assignment 2) Tryphena Duddley

Indonesia: corruption in Suharto’s regime: Avienaash

The article states how corruption in Indonesia did not slow down development; rather it was growing at a steady 8%. Corruption was entrenched so deeply in the society that investors just put down the money that was to be given as bribes as part of the cost of investing in the country.

Corruption here was top down, the president benefitting the most out of it and decreasing as the cadre goes down. Bribery was kept in control by higher officials making sure that their subordinates did not demand more than a particular amount.

One can conclude from this that stability in corruption will still lead to economic growth. So the argument that economic growth is stunted by corruption cannot go a long way. But it still takes away equal opportunity for all which is the main disadvantage of corruption. Here we can bring in the argument that growth is necessary but it must be inclusive.

OFFICIAL MOGULS- Case study on Venezuela- Jyotika

Corruption in Venezuela is taken as an example to study Official Moguls. She describes the three incidents that bring out the corrupt rule of Chavez

1.Starting with the dissolution of the democratically elected National Congress and Chavez thus installing his people in the top level posts which helped him in corruption, which is the very essence of Official Moguls: corruption in the top level.  2. Corruption in the state-owned petroleum company 3. The involvement of National Assembly President Cabello in drug-trafficking organizations.

No action has been taken against the allegations of corruption. She ends the article by pointing out how this is a unilateral form of corruption  and that corruption need not necessarily be exchanging of favours occurring between public and private interests.

This form of corruption is something that is common in autocratic, poor nations. Corruption here is usually unquestioned because the leader holds too much power and there is no institution that is strong enough to stop him as he controls all the institutions and has his followers in top levels who aid him in corruption.

Corruption in the USA- Chandra

 The article starts off by stating that corruption occurs at those points where the political, bureaucratic and economic interests coincide. Bribe payers want to maximize their expected gains or to reduce expected costs, Public officials and politicians would want to maximize their earnings. This is accomplished through bribery. He has tried to explain corruption in very simple terms. He has done it by citing 3 examples.

1.     Where are judge working with a privately run Juvenile prison agreed to keep its prisons full. He also allocated the prison to a private contractor using his discretionary powers. All this for 1 million dollars and hence both players gaining from this.

2.     The second example is a former Pentagon procurement staffer inflating the price of a contract to purchase aerial refuelling tanker aircraft to favour Boeing in return she procured jobs for herself and her son in law.

3.     The third is a fictional example is about a Mafia boss paying an officer to get first preference in buying a piece of land.

The three examples clearly explain the manner in which corruption takes place when political, bureaucratic and economic interests coincide. The difference that this has from the one corruption in Venezuela and Indonesia is that the perpetrators have been punished. This is in spite of the perpetrators in the first 2 examples being people who hold high positions in the government. Thus when the country has proper accountability systems in place corruption is being punished, or at least the ones that are brought to light seem to be. This will certainly be detrimental to further corruption.