Corruption in the East – PLSC 359: Global Governance

The issue of political corruption pervades throughout the eastern and western civilizations. Although in both cases they are detrimental, they diverge on their forms of manifestation. In Eastern nations such as China, India and even Russia, corruption occurs explicitly and exists in the lower rungs of administration as well as the higher ones. The reality is that corruption seeks to widen the economic disparity in these countries. By foiling opportunities for the poor, by basing them on economic value and not social equality, social and economic mobility is challenged.
Last semester I was assigned a book about a slum in my city, Mumbai. It depicted to me that an area I pass quite often, can have nuanced issues that are representative of the political structure of my country. Various accounts that the author poses in Behind the Beautiful Forevers, gives valuable insight into the social and cultural issues that are created by corruption. This book is merely an example of countless cases, wherein politics is used to manipulate economic and social hierarchical arrangements.
While some of the consequences of political corruption do not have a peripheral effect. It is important to understand that the latent issues that are created in Eastern civilizations, borders on tyrannical control. My contention is that while there are many issues that riddle society, by solving the state and regime structure, we can begin to facilitate effective measures to solve global governance problems. Without solving structural imbalances, the measures for solution will not be as effective.

Daniel Connolly says:

April 30, 2016 at 9:37 pm

Rohan makes a good point that corruption is abundant all over the world today. I took a Politics in Africa class taught by Dr. Kandeh and most of what we talked about was the state governments of the continent being rife with corruption. One of the articles we were assigned showed a survey that was run in 28 countries in sub-Saharan Africa in 2014 to attempt to measure the level of corruption.

According to the survey, 22% of Africans who had contact with public services admit to having paid a bribe in the past year. In Liberia the figure was 69%. In Kenya and Nigeria, two of the most important African economies, it was 37% and 43% respectively. In South Africa, the figure was 83%. These numbers are way too high and shows that the international community may need to step in to stand up for the rights and justice of the oppressed citizens of the world.