Publisher's Synopsis
Essay from the year 2015 in the subject Politics - International Politics - General and Theories, grade: 80%, Murdoch University (Murdoch University), course: Special Topics in Development Studies: Corruption, Anti-Corruption and its Discontents, language: English, abstract: The relationship between democracy and corruption has always been a complex one, because any shift from authoritarian to democracy comes with a range of implications for the eradication of corruption. Although democracy and neo-liberal transformations are largely meant to clean up the public sector in emerging democracies, corruption seems to be impervious to intervention programmes particularly for nations that were initially under authoritarian leadership. The purpose of this essay is to analyse the impact of democratisation on the levels of corruption. The essay will first define the concepts of corruption and democracy and outline their relationship, before discussing six aspects of democratisation that show the link between the two concepts. The six areas include government legitimacy; freedom of speech and information; separation of powers; decentralisation and federalism; economic liberalisation; and political regimes. The essay will argue that the impact of democratisation on the prevalence of corruption differs according to the type, level of democracy and availability of effective political and governance systems. Although transitional democracies tend to have high levels of corruption, the establishment of strong political and governance systems in advanced democracies, ultimately reduces opportunities for corruption.
