08: Corruption as a Globalising Factor – Challenges and Threats in Various Sectors

In a world of general globalisation also corruption has become a globalising factor and a globalised phenomenon. As has been mentioned by P.D. Hutchcroft, corruption at its core leaves us with a dilemma:  While strong judicial, political, and administrative structures are essential to the creation and perpetuation of market economies, these structures are woefully undermined if they are themselves permeated by market mentality. Corruption is often described as a social disease; a disease to the stability of societies with a devastating impact on economic and social development as well as prosperity, interrupting the free and fair flow of international trade and (foreign) investment. According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, UNODC, the equivalent of one trillion USD is paid for bribes every year. All these assets and resources get lost for the original cause, consequently increasing the price of  the product or  the service (without adding to its value) both micro- and macro-economically. In similar vein, research indicates that higher levels of corruption significantly decrease GNP growth rates. Corruption also undermines the institutions and values of democracy and undercuts ethical values, justice and equality. Inequality, however, increases corruption. Thus, an apodictic circulus vitiosus?