The Evolution of Corruption Around The Globe

Corruption is something that has been present since the dawn of humanity. Whether it was to bribe the leader of your tribe to earn extra land for farming, or banks bribing government officials to manipulate information on economic stability for personal monetary profit, corruption is something that has shaped the way organizations function over the centuries. 

But now we have to ask, has it evolved more in some parts of the world, with more complexe schemes compared to others? 

Corruption variates in political systems

I am not one for speculations and conspiracies, but there are facts that show that countries who have the financial means to hide it, very well will for as long as they can. 

In more developed parts of the world, where image is everything, corruption is something that is treated very gently because of the consequences and backfire it implicates, shall it ever come to light. In democracies, giving the power to the people means that they choose the fate of their country’s future. If the representatives that they have chosen do not amount to their expectations, the people are going to use their democratic rights, like freedom of speech or freedom of the press, to make sure that their voices are heard. 

In less developed parts of the world, or different political systems, the power is mostly not given to the people, but rather the authority. Freedom of the press or freedom of speech is something that the people need to fight for. Censorship, the dismantling of protesters and the incarceration of first time offenders rooting against the government is proof that the country’s future relies solely on its leaders. (most of the time non-elected)

Transparency International is an organisation that works towards uncovering and exposing corruption worldwide. In their own words: 

“ We work together with governments, businesses and citizens to stop the abuse of power, bribery and secret deals”

This graph, published by Transparency International in 2018, clearly indicates that a majority of full democracies have a clean regime, where corruption is uncommon or a rarity. The more we divert from a full democracy, coming down to flawed democracies, we can notice that way more countries are below a CPI of 50, meaning corruption is a rather recurring problem. In this group we notice mostly central and south american countries (Colombia, Mexico, Dominican Republic, Brazil,...). There, corruption is no surprise. Ruled by drug Kingpins, violence and fear, citizens have no voice nor right given to them. 

Authorities and governments themselves, bribed by criminal organisations or big business to exploit land and workers only furthers the already deep societal disparities present in those countries.

Moving further down to the hybrid and autocratic regimes, we notice a majority of african, middle eastern and commonwealth countries, with the exception of Russia, China and Saudi Arabia who are known powerful and developed autocraties with corruption issues. In their case propaganda, censorship and pride in their system is what keeps them locked in time and unwilling to change. 

Seeing what we’re allowed to see

The point that is brought forward here is that the rate of corruption in developed countries is, to the naked eye, rather low and corruption scandals happen every so often. The reality is that most corruption scandals are discovered only years after the actual crime took place, and the worst part is that , in some cases, developed countries use less developed countries to commit their crimes. 

While praising democracy and spitting on autocracies, politicians from developed countries talk about deploying government advisors in states where government structures are crumbling, while in the meantime they open offshore accounts and benefit from the tax havens. There they can evade high taxes imposed by their OWN government and therefore maintain their financial means, unlike regular workers and minimum wage earners.  

In case you didn’t figure out which scandal I was hinting at in the beginning of the paragraph,, I’m talking about the Panama Papers uncovered in 2016. But, this particular tax evasion and offshore secrecy case has been going on since the 1970’s. 

Notable political personalities from full and flawed democracies, where corruption is a rare occasion, are Jean-Marie Le Pen, former president of the National Front in France, Jean-Luc Dehaene who was the former Prime Minister of Belgium, Dominique Strauss-Kahn who was former Managing Director of the IMF and Silvio Berlusconi, former Prime Minister of Italy. When we take a look at flawed democracies with high corruption rates, hybrid regimes and autocratic regimes, the notable personalities are the current Saudi King Salman bin Abdelaziz Al Saoud, Riccardo Francolini who was the former President of Savings Bank (owned by Panama’s government), Rafael Correa who was the former President of Ecuador, and lastly Victor Cruz Weffer who was the General of the Venuzuelan army and President of the National Urban Development Fund. 

All of them had Offshore accounts, and evaded taxes imposed by their own government. Their spot in the government, or ties to the government enabled them to put their wealth in tax havens and so save more money. The scary part is the people I mentioned above represent only a fraction of the estimated 214,000 Offshore accounts uncovered in the Panama Papers. On a side note, I would also like to add that according to the former European Commissioner for Taxation, Pierre Moscovici, who told reporters the use of offshore companies, to hide what he called "shocking amounts" of financial assets from tax authorities, was "unethical". He estimated that the tax shelters resulted in an annual loss of some $1,2 trillion in public finances in the EU. Now that’s a lot of money, considering that the EU’s GDP in 2015 amounted to $16.4 trillion, 7.3% of its GDP actually. 

The numbers don't seem scary, but societal progress was avoided. Fewer funding of public establishments, schools that could have been built in impoverished neighborhoods never came to light, social disparities remain the same, government programs brought fewer changes in society do to a lack of funding, the damage isn’t visible to the naked eye but it affected the countries that needed those changes the most.

Corruption within autocracies

Before I start this, I am well aware that I might be called out for this and be told that this is a perception issue, but this is factual. 

After having talked with many people that come from hybrid and autocratic regimes (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Turkey, Iran, Libya, etc.), from what they’ve told me is that “corruption” is so embedded into their country's culture, so much so that it has become part of it. In the UAE, a missing person case is still ongoing. 

Princess Latifa, daughter of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, had tried to escape UAEs political regime for a good reason. Her sister, Princess Shamsa had tried to escape previously and failed to do so in the year 2000. Since the day she got captured she hasn’t been seen.  Princess Latifa had already tried to escape when she was 16, but she got captured at UAE’s border. 

According to a video she published, she was tortured, beaten and imprisoned for more than 3 years. She took a second attempt in 2018 and tried to escape to India, but failed again. The UAE has gotten pressure on the international scene, requesting proof of Princess Latifa’s livelihood. Former UN Human Rights Chief Mary Robinson was sent to the UAE to witness her “well-being”. According to her, and I quote, “The dilemma was that Latifa is vulnerable, she’s troubled. She made a video that she now regrets and she planned an escape, or was part of a plan of escape,” said Robinson, who told how she had lunch with Latifa and was able to “assess the situation”. Of course she received widespread criticism and was accused of saving the UAE’s image for global trading purposes. The question that follows still remains, “Where is Princess Shamsa?”

Still no answers concerning her disappearance even though the UAE received many human rights violation accusations, but for some reason the United Nations or international courts of law have not come around to condemning actions performed by the state. And why is that? The UAE is one of the richest states in the Arab Peninsula, and one of the biggest Foreign Direct Investors in the world. Sanctioning them would be a death sentence to future projects brought forward by developed countries, especially in the private sector. 

We can also talk about Saudi Arabia:

The problem here is, how do you condemn an autonomous state that doesn’t submit to political pressure? An embargo. The other problem is that we’re not talking about a country the size of Cuba or Iran here, economically speaking, we’re talking about a country that literally controls oil prices around the world. If Saudi Arabia wanted to, they could shut down OPEC and inflate (massively) the price of oil around the world. This will not only be detrimental to the other member states of OPEC, who will suffer a loss of demand due to the high prices, but it will also sanction first world countries that buy from them. In other words, sanctioning those countries is like shooting yourself in the foot. We already have proof of a failed embargo on OPEC, which resulted in the worldwide 1973 oil crisis.

Lastly, we cannot talk about corruption without mentioning North Korea. 

North Korea is at the forefront of corruption. Over there you do not achieve rank through merit, but reputation. “Oh? Your grandfather served in the korean war back in the 50’s? You are now officially part of the high society.” Comfy jobs are given to the families that contributed the most throughout history. In North Korea's government you do not only have a budget for the country, but you also have a secret trust fund for the great leader. Personal pocket money coming out of the blood, sweat and tears of the starving hardworking people of North Korea. North Korea has labor camps located primarily in Russia, working in the deep woods of Siberia, or on ship yards for the more educated citizens. Undocumented, insurance-less, no work safety equipment, North Korea’s illegal workers face the possibility of dying at any given day. They live in restricted compounds that don't allow any press access. They’re allowed one weekly trip (if they’re able to afford it) to the supermarket. They see their family 7 years after they started their work shift, and 70% of their earnings go to the government. What little they have left they send to their families, which in most cases they won’t ever see again.

Clearly there are human right violations here, but a state as secretive as North Korea that shoots to kill any defecting citizen, is just another example of a country that suppresses basic human rights and deals with corruption systematically...

Corruption within Democracies

The difference between corruption in an autocratic state and a democratic state is its sophistication. We use fancy terms like money laundering, embezzlement, influence peddling, cronyism, nepotism,etc. In reality, most of the people will not be able to understand what those terms signify, so if it hits the front page of the latest edition newspaper article it will go unnoticed. Most importantly, people put corruption and abuse of power in the same bubble. It’s true that in certain cases, like influence peddling, cronyism and nepotism, being in a position of power is necessary. But for a lot of other forms of corruption we’re talking about a loop-hole in the system. Morality and doing the right thing is what most people believe to be the right approach to take when you are in a position of power, but when you find a loop-hole in the system and you’re in a position of power, where you can profit from the governments sloppiness, you’ll exploit it. You can tell yourself that you won’t do it, and in some cases you might be true to your world. But in most cases, as has proven the Stanford Prison experiment, once given the opportunity to be the element of control in a volatile situation, that feeling of wanting control will overwhelm the individual and lead to irrational choices and behaviour.   

Recently new corruption charges came alight. Not “new” as in recent, but as in people are just now becoming aware of it. Recently a Netflix documentary came out on Jeffrey Epstein, a former hedge fund manager accused of sexually abusing minors in sick and convoluted ways and child sex trafficking. In this documentary, there is an in depth analysis on what went on behind the curtains in court hearings, on his private properties and even more so in his mind. But we are not here to discuss the person he was or what he did, we are here to understand how he used the system to his advantage, and why it took authorities 25 years and dozens of victims before holding him accountable for his actions. 

It ranged from giving substantial donations to police departments to leave him alone, to having friends in high places who get him out of sticky situations. Money just made everything easier when it came to exerting his criminal activities.

When he got convicted the first time he got out with a plea deal which not only gave him immunity, but also gave immunity to his co-conspirators. He got away with it, because Alexander Acosta, the appointed United States Attorney for the southern district of Florida at the time, overrode state authorities to ensure a minor prison sentence in a private “white collar” prison. On top of that, Epstein was allowed to leave prison for “work” under the condition that it was within the boundaries of his Palm beach property and that he returned to the prison at 8pm every day for 13 months, with the exception of Sundays where he was not allowed to leave the prison. He was given A-class food, a privileged treatment, everything that should not have been. It was then questioned what he did outside of the prison walls, so private investigators started looking into his activities.

He held private meetings in hotels, left his property whenever he desired, everything he did went against his illegally generous sentence. The argument given by higher authorities when having brought forward the facts was “what do you want he’s a celebrity”. A blatant disregard of the law and a disgusting remark considering that working class people or minorities, who have been convicted of lesser crimes, got harsher sentences. That comes to show that in the land of the free, freedom is bought not given.   

-Image from Netflix-

Now a conspiracy involving the acting President of the United States, Donald Trump, has surfaced. Court documents show that both Trump and Epstein got accused of sexually exploiting a minor. If rumors became facts, then Trump would not only be impeached but would receive a lifelong prison sentence. Epstein’s so called “suicide” has always been questioned but not thoroughly enough. According to the forensic reports, among the injuries found on Epstein during the autopsy are contusions on both wrists, an abrasion on his left forearm, and deep muscle hemorrhaging in his left shoulder muscle. Autopsy photos also show an injury to the back of his neck, a cut on his lip, and an injection mark in his arm, though it is unknown whether the latter injuries happened during an attempt to resuscitate Epstein at the hospital. Everything points towards a homicide, and due to the nature of the circumstance, where in a maximum security facility all cameras had stopped functionning and guards slept, was conveniently timed with Epstein’s supposed suicide. It is now stipulated that Trump used his position to get rid of Epstein because it would have cost him his career. Of course this last part is conspiracy, and until it is fact checked I cannot declare it as a corruption.

Other forms of corruption that could question the integrity of a democratic system are campaign financing, mass surveillance, bribery, backroom lobbying, and much more. 

Does money equal power?

In the end, if you have money and power, you’re going to have to make a choice between those two when you retire. People would argue that money is power, well yes and no. On one hand, Money gives you status. You can use your status to create your power, employing people, donating to a charity, funding presidential campaigns, etc. I’d like to take this quote from (ironically enough)House of Cards, in which Frank Underwood says

“Money is the McMansion in Sarasota that starts falling apart after 10 years. Power is the old stone building thats stands for centuries”

When you have money, you have a network. Wealthy people deal, negotiate and hang out with people that share their status. So the power is created by the money itself. And on the other hand, you can have power without being wealthy. For example, let’s take the President of The United States. The most important person in the country, and the most powerful individual in the world. A person who deals foreign affairs, decides national budget allocations, has access to nuclear warheads, etc. The person who has the country’s future in the palm of their hand.

The President of the United State will earn a base salary of $400,000, along with a $50,000 expense allowance; $100,000 nontaxable travel account, and $19,000 entertainment account. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a lot of money. But keep in mind that mistakes done by the President can result in nationwide chaos and in some cases an economic crisis. 

In total, the President of the United States earns $569,000, not to mention that the President doesn’t pay for housing, food, security, etc. Yet, in the private sectors and industries the average CEO salary yearly, according to EQUILAR (a leading provider of Board Intelligence Solutions), amounts to $7,4 Million. We can’t argue that that’s a hell of a lot more than the most powerful man in the world.

Conclusion

We can now conclude this article by saying that corruption is well and alive within every political system in the world. Throughout history corruption has been present everywhere. While countries and governments are fighting hard to reduce corruption in their systems down to zero, the likelihood of it never happening again are about as high as the US rewriting its constitution and getting rid of the second amendment. 

I hope this article was an enjoyable read, and if you have any remarks or questions I will be at your disposal to answer them.