Political corruption occurs when government officials fail to enforce the law fairly, often through bribery or abuse of power. It is more prevalent in systems lacking checks and balances, such as dictatorships. The CIA ranks nations based on political freedoms and civil liberties, with oppressive regimes like North Korea and Burma scoring poorly. Corruption in local government often stems from neglect by the national government, while even advanced democracies can be affected. Encouraging citizen participation is one way to combat corruption.
Political corruption is a general term that refers to cases where appointed or elected government officials, from judges to legislators and the police, fail to enforce the law in a fair and balanced manner. This may include activities such as advocacy for legislation through bribery, favorable or unfavorable judicial and legal treatment of selected minorities in the population, or other abuses of power. Human history in governments of all kinds has demonstrated corruption to some extent. The practice is usually more prevalent, however, in political systems that lack the innate checks and balances for limiting power at the local and national levels, such as in dictatorships and totalitarian regimes.
The most unstable countries are generally those with little government administration and control over the population, due to economic, military or ethnic unrest. This often leads to widespread political corruption in government officials who obtained their authority and positions through questionable means in the first place and who may not be representative of the will of the people. Nations topping the list in an index of failed states as of 2011 included Somalia, Zimbabwe and Sudan. Each nation has unique circumstances that lead to political corruption, with Somalia having a very weak central government, Zimbabwe facing enormous economic challenges, and Sudan grappling with ethnic strife.
National intelligence services such as the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) routinely examine corruption by country and attempt to fairly rank nations using universal human rights principles. These include the political freedoms and protections governments offer their citizens. The lists are based on basic political rights and civil liberties which, when established, minimize political corruption such as police corruption and unjust rule by a power elite.
The CIA’s ranking of nations by level of freedom as of 2011 is based on the political rights of a fair electoral process, political pluralism and population participation, and a stable and functioning government. It also includes rankings that use civil liberties, such as freedom of expression and belief, the rule of law, and the protection of individual rights. Nations ranked the most oppressive on the list as of 2011 included Burma, Libya and North Korea. Others considered high on the list of unfair political systems that often lead to systemic corruption include China, Cuba and Laos.
Corruption in local government is often an example of where a national government is weak or has abdicated responsibility over its citizens, except in the capital and large cities. This sort of political corruption can be traced back to empires and monarchies of the distant past, where a ruling political class used their power and wealth to exploit a disadvantaged local population. Similar circumstances still exist today in many developing nations, where a nation’s natural resource wealth is largely channeled to the ruling class and the majority of the population is neglected and ignored. The 2007 CIA World Factbook listed the Democratic Republic of the Congo as an example of a nation where rampant corruption in the banking system and poor infrastructure help make it the sixth most dangerous country in the world to live in.
Political scandal, however, is not only the province of poor nations or those governed by oppressive regimes. Many advanced democracies at one time or another have had a political machine that was rampant with corruption. Great statesmen such as Britain’s Winston Churchill recognized that political corruption is a human condition that manifests itself in all forms of government and that one of the best ways to reduce it was to encourage the participation of all citizens in the government process. Political corruption in its most basic form is an act by a public official who challenges broad public interests, to give special consideration to the needs of like-minded members and individuals. In this sense, political corruption is a trend that all public officials must be on guard against in carrying out their day-to-day duties for the population they are charged with serving.
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