Governmental Responses to Political Corruption

Corruption is a complex social, political, and economic phenomenon that affects all countries to different degrees. There has been a dramatic resurgence of interest for the term in the early 21st century. As a term it has many meanings. It is viewed most broadly as the misuse of office for unofficial ends. Transparency International defines it as one of the greatest challenges of the contemporary world. The catalogue of corrupt acts includes bribery, extortion, nepotism, fraud, and embezzlement. There are also different forms of corruption. While bureaucratic or petty corruption occurs at a smaller scale and within established social frameworks and governing norms, political or grand corruption occurs at the highest levels of government, involving significant subversion of political, legal, and economic systems. Political corruption is a relatively new challenge for social sciences, although it has been an issue for politics and society for many centuries...