Essay on Corruption in Politics for Class 10, 12, Mains Exam (UPSC, PSC, SSC)
Any kind of dishonesty or criminal offense done by any person or organization in power in order to acquire power by illicit means is termed as corruption. Political corruption is the misuse of public power or resources by government officials for personal benefits by bribery, extortion, lobbying, nepotism, embezzlement and influence peddling. Suppression of political opponents is also a type of political corruption. White corruption comprises acts that many would not consider worthy of any punishment. Grey corruption includes acts in which few people want to punish the offenders and black corruption include acts that majority of the masses would condemn and claim punishment.
Types of political corruption:
The types of political corruption are discussed below:
- Bribery: Bribery means payment to a government official in exchange of any official favour from him. Bribery comprises of two participants- one who takes it and one who receives it. As for instance a customs officer may take bribe from a smuggler for the passing of his unscrupulous goods.
- Patronage: This is a process whereby the government changes the top officials in the administration owing to their loyalty to the government, not on their ability to possess such a position. This mostly happen in non-democracies such as Romania and Iraq where the government is accused of patronage.
- Influence peddling: This involves the act of paying or providing benefit to a person who has the real potential of decision making for the advantage of a third party. It is a serious form of violation as the person influencing the decision maker wants to seek an undue advantage.
- Embezzlement: A type of white-collar crime, where a person swindles the assets consigned to them. The embezzler uses the fund for unintended purposes.
- Electoral fraud: It is an illegal interference in the process of election as regards to vote counting to bring about an election result. This means increasing the vote count for the favored candidate, by suppressing the vote share of the competent candidates.
- Nepotism: A form of favoritism whereby the relatives and friends of a politician ascends to a similar power or a reputed designation without having adequate qualifications.
Causes of political corruption:
The causes of political corruption are discussed below:
- Size of the country: Countries that are large having low density population cannot monitor the activity of the public officials in scattered locations.
- Political instability: Partisan administration leads to political corruption.
- Wages: Countries where the people earn low income clearly hints at the corruption exercised by the public officials.
- Lack of rule of law: Rule of law implies the creation, enforcement and relation among rules so that they are legally regulated. Even the higher public official cannot violate the law. So, lawlessness leads to corruption.
- Country age: countries that have shifted from authoritarian regimes to democracies are prone to corruptions due to underdeveloped governance.
- Size of government: The larger the size of the government, the chances are more for the corruption to take place. The government structure and political instability determines the corruption.
Effects of political corruption:
Corruption undermines the legitimacy of democratic values and the good governance of the country. Its increases the price of essential commodities and services. The marginal tax rate is also affected due to corruption. It plays a huge role in the health-care systems. It includes bribes and kickbacks for getting contracts for the purchase and supply of medicines and stealing of drugs. Promotion in educational institutions depend on personal connections and not on merit. In academic research, plagiarism is also a form of corruption which affects the learning process.
Conclusion:
Political corruption cripples the social, moral and economic development of a country. It is difficult to measure corruption due to the unlawful nature of transaction and succinct definitions of corruptions. Through survey responses, the World bank assembles data on political corruption. It is a social evil that needs to be stopped immediately for the benefit of the citizens of the country.
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