Questions tagged [corruption]
Corruption is where a government official acts in their own interests, often over the interests of their position or country.
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Why is it a bad idea to hire a hitman to eliminate most corrupt politicians?
According to an article I read recently (I could not find it though), the easiest way to take down a big authority is by cutting the head - meaning the uppermost level of control of that authority - ...
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What is a successful policy against lobbying in a democratic country?
The US government is drowning in lobbyist that undermine the democratic power of the people in favor of wealthy corporations/oligarchs. My question is: are there any significantly successful policies ...
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Is the US President prohibited from receiving clothing as a gift? Why or why not?
This article from The Balance, while describing the personal benefits and responsibilities of the office of the presidency, says this about gifts of clothing:
Presidents and their spouses cannot ...
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Has Trump managed to implement any of his anti-corruption (lobbying reform) campaign proposals?
In a 2016 article, the BBC noted some (four) proposals of then-candidate Trump:
Currently, anyone spending less than 20% of their time engaged in lobbying can call themselves an "adviser" ...
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Is there any possibility to have a democracy inherently discourage lobbying?
Can a democratic system be structured in a way that doesn't rely on ethics or brute-force, police-state-esque measures to disable lobbying?
Is there a way to inherently make lobbying unattractive/...
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Would the hypothetical Exxon call be illegal?
This BBC article quotes Trump suggesting he could quickly raise large amounts of campaign funds by offering things to CEOs.
President Trump went on to describe a hypothetical conversation: "How ...
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Why is Trump promoting hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for COVID-19?
As of this writing (2020-05-18) Trump has publicly recommended the use of hydroxychloroquine as a preventive measure for COVID-19. In addition, he has publicly announced that he is taking it himself ...
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Questionable COVID-19 procurement outside the UK
There is an ongoing situation in the UK regarding the propriety of the procurement of some goods and services during the response to COVID-19.
Conservative PPE contracts
Michael Gove and VIP lane
...
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How does the European Union objectively assess the level of corruption within a certain country?
During a meeting with the Romanian Prime Minister, following anti-corruption weakening trials, Frans Timmermans, First Vice-President of the European Commission said the following:
I strongly ...
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What type of corruption did Trump campaign against?
In conversation with a young person recently, I mentioned that Washington, DC, had a lot of corruption when I lived there, e.g. if you couldn't get a building permit on the up and up, you could get ...
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What are “frugality rules”?
A total of 15,799 Chinese officials were punished in July for violating frugality rules, the top anti-graft body said on Thursday.
https://www.shine.cn/news/nation/2008285032/
What does the term &...
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Is there any accountability for the money the US provides for the war in Ukraine?
While Zelensky is in the US asking for more funds to support the war in Ukraine I read on the media that there was some debate whether it is worth or not to keep funding them. I got the feeling that ...
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Did Hillary Clinton call Tulsi Gabbard a "Russian asset"?
In a recent podcast, Hillary Clinton stated:
"They are also going to do third party again. I'm not making any predictions, but I think they’ve got their eye on somebody who is currently in the ...
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How is corruption measured?
The 2012 Corruption Perceptions Index was just published and according to it, Greece has the dubious honour of being the most corrupted member of the European Union.
Naturally this stung a bit, and ...
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Checks against corruption in Gaza, and their effectiveness
What checks to corruption (if any) are there to the Hamas regime in Gaza, and how effective are they?
Related: Checks against corruption in the Palestinian Authority and their effectiveness
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Are there examples of grassroots-level corruption in the history of socialism/communism?
I have found an evidence of elite corruption:
Finally, the project for socialism as the promise of plenty generated
by the planning mechanisms of the all-people’s state terminated in
elite corruption ...
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Why hadn't the west arrested Russian billionaires for corruption/money laundering prior to the Ukraine war?
According to US law they can arrest people for money laundering even if the money was laundered outside of the US.
Here's Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny's old statement:
The West plays ...
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If India got independence in 1947, how come there were governments by Indians before then?
I was looking at many early politicians of India and wondered why some of them are listed as Prime Minister, Chief minister, etc. of certain Indian states, before 1947. But I read India received ...
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Checks against corruption in the Palestinian Authority and their effectiveness
"Corruption, as defined by the World Bank, is a form of dishonesty or criminal offense undertaken by a person or organization entrusted with a position of authority, to acquire illicit benefit or ...
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What is the justification for allowing elected officials to accept money from corporations?
After reading this news article and this one I am perplexed. Admittedly, I'm no expert in politics.
But in a free nation, where senators and representatives are elected to represent their ...
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What are real-world examples of the "Slippery Slope"?
The "slippery slope" is an argument, considered by some as legitimate, and others as imaginary, that suggests once a law or attitude sets a precedent, it will more easily/ inevitably be corrupted or ...
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How can a president stamp out corruption?
How can a president stamp out corruption?
So how are some societies more corrupt than others. Is it more a matter of cultural norms and what's acceptable in a culture? (as in Germans are famous for ...
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Why isn't Austria's vice chancellor simply replaced instead of going for new elections?
According to Deutsche Welle, Austria's Chancellor, Sebastian Kurz, has announced that there will be new elections after the vice chancellor's involvement in the corruption scandal:
Austrian ...
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Outside of Iceland's PM, did the Panama Papers have any meaningful effect on high level politicians?
At the time of Panama Papers release, there were suggestions made by the press that it's a Big Deal and will lead to Great Changes in politics.
The prime example they used was a nearly-instant fall ...
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What can the U.S. government do to prevent powerful people to get extremely favorable plea bargain deals like Jeff Epstein?
We know that Jeff Epstein got an extremely favorable plea bargain deal from the chief prosecutor. The media is now questioning if there was due process, or someone powerful got into the way of the due ...
user27009
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Do donations to the Clinton Foundation in any way shape or form translate into some form of personally accessible wealth gained by the Clintons?
I'm watching Clinton Cash right now, and this may be explained at some point in the future in this documentary, but I'm the type of person that likes to ask questions and understand principles and ...
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Why don't politicians decide to pass laws that make themselves really rich?
Why don't US politicians in the Senate, House of Representatives, and Supreme Court decide to give themselves, say, 100 million dollars each? I understand that the politicians doing so wouldn't get ...
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Do the USA and France offer tax havens?
'Stolen assets of developing countries must be returned,' PM Imran tells UN panel
Prime Minister Imran Khan called upon the international community to take steps to counter illicit flows of money, ...
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Would shorter election cycles bring cleaner and better politics?
In the Czech Republic it is estimated that about 10% of the governmental expenses are lost as cost of corruption (I think the source is Transparency International, but I can not find it now). This ...
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Why has Malta's perceived corruption grown so much recently?
One of the Panama Papers journalist was killed using a bomb in Malta:
The journalist who led the Panama Papers investigation into corruption
in Malta was killed on Monday in a car bomb near her ...
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Is it legal for a state government to pay legal fees of a minister allegedly involved in a corruption case?
In Kerala state of India, the previous government spent INR 35 lakhs (3.5 millions) as court/advocate/legal fees for a corruption case in which a minister was involved.
The source of that fees is ...
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What political factors are shared by countries that let oligarchs emerge during the transition from a communist country to a capitalist country?
The privatization of state assets from formerly communist countries is often riddled with corruption and leads to a small ruling cadre with extensive influence (see the example of Russian oligarchs).
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What are the commonalities among the top performers on Corruption Perception Index?
According to 2021 Corruption Perception Index produced by Transparency International, these are the top performers:
Denmark
Finland
New Zealand
Norway
Singapore
Sweden
Switzerland
Netherlands
...
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Are there some high profile cases of convictions for influence peddling in the UK?
According to Wikipedia, some countries have a more encompassing standard of a corrupt act compared to the US (which following McDonnell v US has tightened the definition of a corrupt act considerably),...
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How was Silvio Berlusconi in power for a long time?
How was Silvio Berlusconi in power for 9 years and 54 days with all his corruption?
user4514
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What is the best objective comparison of the level of corruption in Russia to other countries?
I am looking for the best objective source to compare corruption in Russia to other countries. The often cited Corruption Perceptions Index (as far as I can tell) is not objective since it is based on ...
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What are the exact mechanisms of such form of corruption as 'state capture'?
I can't understand one thing. How is it possible to have a decisive impact on the contents of the legislative regulations that provide a regulatory framework for economic activities if these ...
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What is the constitutional logic for a republic to have a sovereign immunity law?
Looking at this list, it seems like most sovereign immunity laws exist in countries with monarchies, which makes sense both historically (an artifact of the principle of rex non potest peccare); and ...
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Is there any research relating to reform and corruption in local and small scale authorities?
I am looking for solid evidence led input on the topic of reforming and reducing corruption (or the appearance thereof) in local authorities. Ideally this would be based in the UK as this is where the ...
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How is corruption thematically related to the ascension of a dictatorship?
I heard that some dictators, including Hitler, used the theme "we must end corruption" as a means to gain popularity and install their dictatorship more easily.
Is this true? If so, what's the ...
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What happens to assets seized from foreign presidents due to corruption allegations?
According to BBC News, the vice-president of Equatorial Guinea is accused of stealing oil money:
Prosecutors in Switzerland have seized luxury cars belonging to the vice-president of Equatorial ...
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Can the Panama Papers land Argentinian President Macri in jail?
The Panama Papers, released on April 3rd 2016, listed the President of Argentina, Mauricio Macri.
President Macri said that it was totally legal, but some argued that it was not ethical.
Yesterday, he ...
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What are some minimum indicators which tell us that a government is corrupt? [closed]
We often say that "country-X's government is corrupt". Transparency international's CPI tells us how corrupt a country is which doesn't have any official recognition as it is a non-government ...
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Why did the perception of corruption in China increase suddenly in 2014?
Source of Data.
This is the compilation of data from Transparency International's Corruption Perception Index.
This chart shows that in 2014, China suddenly plunged to 100th position. On the other ...
user4514
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To what extent does a parliamentary system correlate with a decrease in corruption?
I have noticed that there seems to be a correlation between a country using parliamentary system and said country having a low level of corruption.
Top 10 countries with lowest perceived corruption in ...
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Lokpal Act and Jan Lokpal Bill, what's the difference between these two bills?
What's the difference between the anti-corruption Lokpal Act and Jan Lokpal Bill in Indian Politics?
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What is the status of former Brazilian president Michel Temer prosecution for corruption charges?
Michel Temer, former
Brazilian president who took office after the impeachment of Dilma
Rousseff in August 2016, has since been investigated on accusations of
corruption.
In 2017, Brazil’s top anti-...
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Were Rudy Giuliani's divergent opinions related to Romania's fighting against corruption clarified?
According to the Guardian Rudy Giuliani sent a rather strange letter to Romanian President about some fighting against corruption issues:
In a letter to Romanian president Klaus Iohannis (..) ...
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Will the changes to the NSW ICAC reduce its effectiveness?
The NSW government is putting through changes to ICAC, they claim its to make it more effective but it can also look like its because ICAC has been too effective at finding problems with the party.
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What do countries do to ensure that R&D budget for science or technology in general coming from the government is spent effectively?
What do countries do to ensure that R&D budget for science or technology in general coming from the government is spent effectively? Often countries give a 1+ billion stimulus package for R&D ...
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