Corruption, Trust, Inclusion and Cohesion in North Africa and the Middle East

Roger Sapsford; Gerasimos Tsourapas; Pamela Ann Abbott; Andrea Teti

doi:10.1007/s11482-017-9578-8

Corruption, Trust, Inclusion and Cohesion in North Africa and the Middle East

Roger Sapsford, Gerasimos Tsourapas, Pamela Ann Abbott, Andrea Teti

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article

1 Citation (Scopus)

7 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Corruption provokes much anger in the Middle East and North African (MENA) and was important in the Arab Uprisings; it was government corruption that sparked the greatest anger among the population. The argument of this Report is (a) that corruption is a major and obvious breach of trust, (b) that the same is true for ‘civil’ corruption – ‘wasta’ in employment, business corruption – (c) that as well as not trusting their government and its institutions, MENA residents do not trust each other either, to the detriment of maintaining functional nation states without coercion, and (d) 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 divides the society into those who extort bribes or dispense favours and those who are required to pay bribes and are excluded from favour – in other words, there is a breakdown of social inclusion. Further, it destroys trust between people and trust in social institutions, which breaks the cords that hold modern societies together - it is an attack on social cohesion. The article is based mainly on the Arab Transformations Survey, carried out in six developing MENA countries in 2014, three years after the ‘Arab Spring’.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	1-21
Number of pages	21
Journal	Applied Research in Quality of Life
Volume	14
Issue number	1
Early online date	26 Dec 2017
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1007/s11482-017-9578-8
Publication status	Published - Mar 2019

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North Africa

group cohesion

Middle East

corruption

inclusion

anger

social institution

social cohesion

constitutional state

nation state

resident

society

Keywords

corruption
trust
rule of law
social inclusion
social cohesion
MENA
Corruption
Rule of law
Social cohesion
Trust
Social inclusion

Cite this

Sapsford, R., Tsourapas, G., Abbott, P. A., & Teti, A. (2019). Corruption, Trust, Inclusion and Cohesion in North Africa and the Middle East. Applied Research in Quality of Life, 14(1), 1-21. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11482-017-9578-8

Corruption, Trust, Inclusion and Cohesion in North Africa and the Middle East. / Sapsford, Roger; Tsourapas, Gerasimos; Abbott, Pamela Ann ; Teti, Andrea.

In: Applied Research in Quality of Life, Vol. 14, No. 1, 03.2019, p. 1-21.

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article

Sapsford, R, Tsourapas, G, Abbott, PA & Teti, A 2019, 'Corruption, Trust, Inclusion and Cohesion in North Africa and the Middle East', Applied Research in Quality of Life, vol. 14, no. 1, pp. 1-21. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11482-017-9578-8

Sapsford R, Tsourapas G, Abbott PA , Teti A. Corruption, Trust, Inclusion and Cohesion in North Africa and the Middle East. Applied Research in Quality of Life. 2019 Mar;14(1):1-21. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11482-017-9578-8

Sapsford, Roger ; Tsourapas, Gerasimos ; Abbott, Pamela Ann ; Teti, Andrea. / Corruption, Trust, Inclusion and Cohesion in North Africa and the Middle East. In: Applied Research in Quality of Life. 2019 ; Vol. 14, No. 1. pp. 1-21.

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Corruption, Trust, Inclusion and Cohesion in North Africa and the Middle East
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