Uwarunkowania i charakterystyka wzorów korupcji w systemie demokratycznym i niedemokratycznym na przykładzie USA i ZSRR
- Year of publication: 2012
- Source: Show
- Pages: 228-248
- DOI Address: https://doi.org/10.15804/athena.2012.36.12
- PDF: apsp/36/apsp3612.pdf
Determinants and characteristic of patterns of corruption in democratic and undemocratic system based on the example of the United States of America and the Soviet Union
THIS ARTICLE REFERS to the differences in patterns of corruption which are caused by distinctive features of democratic and undemocratic political system. These regularities can be investigated through exploring the profound differences in the structure of power in the Soviet Union and the United States of America. The first part of the article is an attempt to describe how political system factors generate a relatively predictable course of the political career in each chosen state. A political biography structuralized in this process is intertwined with a pattern of corruption determined by constraints, opportunities and priorities which emerge during a typical career of Soviet and American politician. A reconstruction of the organizational setting within which a typical politician acts allows to focus on the characteristic corruption practices which are a direct consequence of how power is gained, maintained and legitimized. The second part deals with the given patterns of corruption. Monopolistic and centralized power structure typical of the Soviet Union had generated so called ,,legalized corruption” in the shape of institutionalized system of privileges held by the power elite. The informal network of patron – client relationships is another product of the Soviet political system peculiarities. Whereas the case of the United States of America shows how democratic competition leads to a variety of corruption practices around election procedures. The role of the interest groups which are, in the harmony with the spirit of the American political culture, institutions of democratic participation can lead to a corruptive exchange between donors and politicians.