Corruption, Cohesion and the Rule of Law

Roger Sapsford; Gerasimos  Tsourapas; Pamela Ann Abbott

Corruption, Cohesion and the Rule of Law

Roger Sapsford, Gerasimos Tsourapas, Pamela Ann Abbott

Research output: Working paper

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Abstract

Corruption provokes much anger in MENA and was important as a trigger in the Arab Uprisings it was government corruption that sparked the greatest anger among the population. The argument of this Report is (a) that government corruption is a major and obvious breach of trust, (b) that the same is true for ‘civil’ corruption – ‘wasta’ in employment, business corruption - and (c) that corruption is a special case of breach of the Rule of Law which is essential for a decent society. The initial focus on corruption leads to consideration of what people think they can reasonably expect from government and from each other. Ultimately, corruption breaks the cords that hold modern societies together; it is an attack on social cohesion.

Original language	English
Place of Publication	Aberdeen
Publisher	Elsevier
Pages	1-18
Number of pages	18
Publication status	Published - 28 May 2017

Publication series

Name	Arab Transformations Working Paper
Publisher	University of Aberdeen
No.	15
ISSN (Electronic)	2398-9106

Keywords

MENA
Uprisings
Arab Spring
Corruption
Egypt
Iraq
Jordan
Libya
Morocco
Tunisia
Democracy
Cohesion

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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Corruption, Cohesion and the Rule of Law
© Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The report may be copied and used in whole or part and adapted for non-commercial use subject to the original publication being acknowledged. Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2973729
Final published version, 991 KBLicence: CC BY

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Cite this

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title = "Corruption, Cohesion and the Rule of Law",

abstract = "Corruption provokes much anger in MENA and was important as a trigger in the Arab Uprisings it was government corruption that sparked the greatest anger among the population. The argument of this Report is (a) that government corruption is a major and obvious breach of trust, (b) that the same is true for {\textquoteleft}civil{\textquoteright} corruption – {\textquoteleft}wasta{\textquoteright} in employment, business corruption - and (c) that corruption is a special case of breach of the Rule of Law which is essential for a decent society. The initial focus on corruption leads to consideration of what people think they can reasonably expect from government and from each other. Ultimately, corruption breaks the cords that hold modern societies together; it is an attack on social cohesion. ",

keywords = "MENA, Uprisings, Arab Spring, Corruption, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Libya, Morocco, Tunisia, Democracy, Cohesion",

author = "Roger Sapsford and Gerasimos Tsourapas and Abbott, {Pamela Ann}",

note = "Acknowledgements The Arab Transformations Project is coordinated by the University of Aberdeen (UK) and includes a further 11 partners: Dublin City University (DCU), Dublin, Ireland; An{\'a}lisis Sociol{\'o}gicos Econ{\'o}micos y Pol{\'i}ticos (ASEP), Madrid, Spain; Istituto per gli Studi di Politica Internazionale (ISPI), Milan, Italy; Universit{\"a}t Graz (UNI GRAZ), Graz, Austria; Societatea Pentru Methodologia Sondajelor ConcluziaPrim (Concluzia), Chisinau, Moldova; Centre de Recherche en {\'E}conomie Appliqu{\'e}e pour le D{\'e}veloppement (CREAD), Algiers, Algeria; Egyptian Centre for Public Opinion Research (BASEERA); Cairo, Egypt; Independent Institute for Administration and Civil Society Studies (IIACSS), Amman, Jordan; University of Jordan (JU), Amman, Jordan; MEDA Solutions (MEDAS), Casablanca, Morocco; Association Forum Des Sciences Sociales Appliqu{\'e}es (ASSF); Tunis, Tunisia. The author would also like to acknowledge the World Values Survey, Arab Barometer and Gallup Analytics on whose survey data they draw. We are also grateful to Viola Sanelli and Ilia Xypolia, at the University of Aberdeen, for material they supplied on the history and politics of the region. The project received funding from the European Union{\textquoteright}s Seventh Framework Programme under grant agreement no #320214.",

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AU - Tsourapas, Gerasimos

AU - Abbott, Pamela Ann

N1 - Acknowledgements The Arab Transformations Project is coordinated by the University of Aberdeen (UK) and includes a further 11 partners: Dublin City University (DCU), Dublin, Ireland; Análisis Sociológicos Económicos y Políticos (ASEP), Madrid, Spain; Istituto per gli Studi di Politica Internazionale (ISPI), Milan, Italy; Universität Graz (UNI GRAZ), Graz, Austria; Societatea Pentru Methodologia Sondajelor ConcluziaPrim (Concluzia), Chisinau, Moldova; Centre de Recherche en Économie Appliquée pour le Développement (CREAD), Algiers, Algeria; Egyptian Centre for Public Opinion Research (BASEERA); Cairo, Egypt; Independent Institute for Administration and Civil Society Studies (IIACSS), Amman, Jordan; University of Jordan (JU), Amman, Jordan; MEDA Solutions (MEDAS), Casablanca, Morocco; Association Forum Des Sciences Sociales Appliquées (ASSF); Tunis, Tunisia. The author would also like to acknowledge the World Values Survey, Arab Barometer and Gallup Analytics on whose survey data they draw. We are also grateful to Viola Sanelli and Ilia Xypolia, at the University of Aberdeen, for material they supplied on the history and politics of the region. The project received funding from the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme under grant agreement no #320214.

PY - 2017/5/28

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N2 - Corruption provokes much anger in MENA and was important as a trigger in the Arab Uprisings it was government corruption that sparked the greatest anger among the population. The argument of this Report is (a) that government corruption is a major and obvious breach of trust, (b) that the same is true for ‘civil’ corruption – ‘wasta’ in employment, business corruption - and (c) that corruption is a special case of breach of the Rule of Law which is essential for a decent society. The initial focus on corruption leads to consideration of what people think they can reasonably expect from government and from each other. Ultimately, corruption breaks the cords that hold modern societies together; it is an attack on social cohesion.

AB - Corruption provokes much anger in MENA and was important as a trigger in the Arab Uprisings it was government corruption that sparked the greatest anger among the population. The argument of this Report is (a) that government corruption is a major and obvious breach of trust, (b) that the same is true for ‘civil’ corruption – ‘wasta’ in employment, business corruption - and (c) that corruption is a special case of breach of the Rule of Law which is essential for a decent society. The initial focus on corruption leads to consideration of what people think they can reasonably expect from government and from each other. Ultimately, corruption breaks the cords that hold modern societies together; it is an attack on social cohesion.

KW - MENA

KW - Uprisings

KW - Arab Spring

KW - Corruption

KW - Egypt

KW - Iraq

KW - Jordan

KW - Libya

KW - Morocco

KW - Tunisia

KW - Democracy

KW - Cohesion

M3 - Working paper

T3 - Arab Transformations Working Paper

SP - 1

EP - 18

BT - Corruption, Cohesion and the Rule of Law

PB - Elsevier

CY - Aberdeen

ER -

Corruption, Cohesion and the Rule of Law

Abstract

Publication series

Keywords

UN SDGs

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