The specifics of the evolution of the concept of political corruption in Western and Russian political and legal discourse

---

Corruption is a convenient topic for various generalizations about the quality of public institutions. Western, mainly American, political science for decades successfully explains the political processes in different countries, based on the analysis of corruption practices. Modern legal science is actively looking for the new ways to implement this knowledge in legislation and law enforcement. These attempts are not always successful and often very localized, but the process is irreversible. Currently, Russia has a favorable environment for the formation of a consistent legal view on this issue. This became possible due to the current Russian administrative reforms, when the need for a highly professional bureaucracy led to an increase in demand for various anti-corruption mechanisms. The next possible step may be an attempt to develop proven mechanisms of the anti-corruption legislation to improve the political institutions. This article provides a brief overview of the evolution of the concept of political corruption in the Western and Russian political and legal discourse. These observations help to understand that political and legal sciences, both in Russia and abroad, are on the way of increasing convergence in the search for constructive systemic solutions. At the same time, the authors do not attempt to establish an exhaustive set of criteria for the inclusion of existing anti-corruption institutions in the sphere of the constitutional law, or to predetermine the limits of immersion of constitutional and legal science in anti-corruption material. The main objective of the article is to characterize some of the main reference points of the modern international and Russian debates on corruption as a complex social problem. This is not yet a unified cross-sectoral discussion with a common structure, canons and vocabulary. But this is a discussion focused on the corruption in a political system, in the field of responsibility of the constitutional law. Therefore, today it is important to bring forth the starting point from which our science could begin to form the systemic foundations of the consistent development of this potentially fruitful problem.

Abour the authors:

Stanislav Sheverdyaev - Candidate of Sciences (Ph.D.) in Law, Associate Professor, Executive Supervisor of the Research and Education Centre on constitutionalism and municipal governance, Law Faculty, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia; Alina Shenfeldt - Analyst of Laboratory for Anti-Corruption, Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russia.

Citation: Sheverdyaev S., Shenfeldt A. (2019) Osobennosti stanovleniya problemy politicheskoy korruptsii v kachestve temy politiko-pravovoy nauchnoy diskussii [The specifics of evolution of the concept of political corruption in Western and Russian political and legal discourse]. Sravnitel'noe konstitutsionnoe obozrenie, vol.28, no.5, pp.90–112. (In Russian).

References

Allison B. (2016) U.S. Campaign Finance. Bloomberg, 10 November. Available at: https://www.bloomberg.com/quicktake/u-s-campaign-finance (accessed: 12.10.2019).

Amundsen I. (1999) Political Corruption: An Introduction to the Issues, Bergen : Chr. Michelsen Institute.

Avak'yan S.A. (ed.) (2016) Konstitutsionno-pravovye osnovy antikorruptsionnykh reform v Rossii i za rubezhom: Uchebno-metodicheskiy kompleks [The constitutional foundations for the anti-corruption reforms in Russia and abroad], Moscow: Yustitsinform. (In Russian).

Avak'yan S.A. (ed.) (2016) Protivodeystvie korruptsii: konstitutsionno-pravovye podkhody: kollektivnaya monogrpafiya [Fighting corruption: constitutional approaches: a collective monograph], Moscow: Yustitsinform. (In Russian).

Bailey D.H. (1966) The Effects of Corruption in a Developing Nation. Western Political Quarterly, vol.19, no.4, pp.719–732.

Bondarenko S.V. (2002) Korrumpirovannye obshchestva [Corrupt societies], Rostov-na-Donu: OAO “RostIzdaT”. (In Russian).

Cillizza С. (2014) How Citizens United Changed Politics, in 7 Charts. The Washington Post, 22 January. Available at: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2014/01/21/how-citizens-united-changed-politics-in-6-charts/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.c834f077dceb (accessed: 12.10.2019).

Doig A., Theobald R. (eds.) (2000) Corruption and Democratisation, London: Frank Cass.

Eisenstadt S.N. (1963) The Political Systems of Empires: The Rise and Fall of the Historical Bureaucratic Societies, New York: Free Press.

Eisenstadt S.N. (1973) Traditional Patrimonialism and Modern Neopatrimonialism, Beverly Hills, CA: Sage Publications.

Fisun A. (2007) Postsovetskie neopatrimonial'nye rezhimy: genezis, osobennosti, tipologiya [Post-Soviet neopatrimonial regimes: genesis, particularities typology]. Otechestvennye zapiski, no.6, pp.8–28. (In Russian).

Fjelde H., Hegre H. (2014) Political Corruption and Institutional Stability. Studies in Comparative International Development, vol.49, no.3, pp.267–299.

Friedrich C.J. (2005) Corruption in Historical Perspective. In: Heidenheimer A.J., Johnston M. (eds.) Political Corruption: Concepts & Contexts, 3rd ed., New Brunswick, NJ; London: Transaction Publishers, pp.15–24.

Gel'man V.Ya. (2015) Modernizatsiya, instituty i “porochnyy krug” postsovetskogo neopatrimonializma [Modernization, institutions and “vicious circle” of the Post-Soviet neopatrimonialism]: Working paper no.M-41/15, Saint Petersburg : Izdatel'stvo Evropeyskogo universiteta v Sankt-Peterburge. (In Russian).

Heidenheimer A.J. (2005) Perspectives on Perception of Corruption. In: Heidenheimer A.J., Johnston M. (eds.) Political Corruption: Concepts & Contexts, 3rd ed., New Brunswick, NJ; London: Transaction Publishers, pp.141–154.

Hellman J.S., Jones G., Kaufmann D. (2000) Seize the State, Seize the Day. State Capture, Corruption, and Influence in Transition: World Bank Policy Research Working Paper, no.2444. Available at: http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTWBIGOVANTCOR/Resources/seize_synth.pdf (accessed: 12.10.2019).

Helmke G., Levitsky S. (2004) Informal Institutions and Comparative Politics: A Research Agenda. Perspectives on Politics, vol.2, no.4, pp.725–740.

Hope K.R. (2000) Corruption and Development in Africa. In: Hope K.R., Chikulu B.C. (eds.) Corruption and Development in Africa, New York: St.Martin’s Press, pp.17–39.

Issacharoff S., Karlan P.S. (1999) The Hydraulics of Campaign Finance Reform. Texas Law Review, vol.77, no.7, pp.1705–1738.

Jensen D.N. (1997) Patrimonialism in Post-Soviet Russia. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Newsline, vol.1, no.75, pt.1.

Kabanov P.A. (2004) Politicheskaya korruptsiya v Rossii: ponyatie, sushchnost', prichiny, preduprezhdenie [Political corruption in Russia: notion, essence, causes, prevention], Nizhnekamsk: Nizhnekamskiy filial Moskovskogo gumanitarno-ehkonomicheskogo instituta. (In Russian).

Kaid L.L., Holtz-Bacha C. (2007) Encyclopedia of Political Communication, Los Angeles: Sage Publications.

Kang M.S. (2011) The End of Campaign Finance Law. Virginia Law Review, vol.98, no.1, pp.2–66.

Khamazina O.I. (2008) Pravovye sredstva protivodeystviya korruptsii: problemy teorii i praktiki: Dis. … kand. yurid. nauk [Legal means to fight corruption: problems of theory and practice: Cand. of legal sciences. diss.], Saratov. (In Russian).

Klitgaard R. (1988) Controlling Corruption, Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

Kurer O. (2015) Definitions of Corruption. In: Heywood P.M. (ed.) Routledge Handbook of Political Corruption, London: Routledge, pp.30–41.

Kusnetze N. (2015) How We Investigated State Integrity. All about Our Scoring Methodology. The Center for Public Integrity. Available at: https://www.publicintegrity.org/2015/10/14/18316/how-we-investigated-state-integrity (accessed: 13.10.2019).

Kuznetsova N.F. (1999) “Kruglyy stol” po problemam protivostoyaniya korruptsii v Rossii [«Round table» on anti-corruption in Russia]. Vestnik Moskovskogo universiteta, no.4, pp.96–113. (In Russian).

Lafitskiy V.I. (2019) Konstitutsionnyy printsip protivodeystviya korruptsii [The constitutional principle of anti-corruption], Moscow: Prospekt. (In Russian).

Lazarev E.A. (2010) Politicheskaya korruptsiya: ob'yasnyaya prirodu postsovetskikh transformatsiy [Political Corruption: Explaining the Nature of Post-Soviet Transformations]. POLIS: Politicheskie issledovaniya, no.2, pp.106–121. (In Russian).

Lazarev E.A. (2011) Korruptsiya i politicheskaya stabil'nost': institutsio­nal'naya perspektiva [Corruption and political stability: institutional perspective]. Politiya, no.1, pp.50–68. (In Russian).

Levin M.I., Levina E.A., Pokatovich E.V. (2011) Lektsii po ekonomike korruptsii [Lectures on economics of corruption], Moscow: NIU VShE. (In Russian).

Luneev V.V. (2000) Korruptsiya: politicheskie, ehkonomicheskie, organizatsionnye i pravovye problemy (tezisy doklada) [Corruption: political, economic, organizational and legal issues (talking points of the report)]. Gosudarstvo i pravo, no.4, pp.99–111. (In Russian).

Madison J., Hamilton A., Jay J. (1987) The Federalist Papers, London: Penguin.

Manzetti L., Wilson C.J. (2007) Why Do Corrupt Government Maintain Public Support. Comparative Political Studies, vol.40, no.8, pp.949–970.

Mizeriy A.I. (2000) Ugolovno-pravovye i kriminologicheskie aspekty bor'by s korruptsiey v organakh vlasti: Dis. … d-ra yurid. nauk [Criminal law and criminology aspects of the fight against corruption in state bodies: Dr. in law sciences diss.], Nizhniy Novgorod. (In Russian).

Niskanen W.A. (1971) Bureaucracy and Representative Government, Chicago, IL; New York: Aldine-Atherton.

Nisnevich Yu.A. (2017) Politika i korruptsiya: korruptsiya kak faktor mirovogo politicheskogo protsessa [Politics and corruption: corruption as a factor of political process in the world], Moscow: Yurayt. (In Russian).

Nyblade B., Reed S.R. (2008) Who Cheats? Who Loots? Political Competition and Corruption in Japan, 1947–1993. American Journal of Political Science, vol.52, no.4, pp.926–941.

Nye J.S. (2005) Corruption and Political Development: A Cost-Benefit Analysis. In: Heidenheimer A.J., Johnston M. (eds.) Political Corruption: Concepts & Contexts, 3rd ed., New Brunswick, NJ; London: Transaction Publishers, p.281–303.

Okhotskiy I.E. (2015) Pravovoy mekhanizm gosudarstvennoy strategii protivodeystviya korruptsii v Rossiyskoy Federatsii: konstitutsionno-pravovye osnovy: Dis. … kand. yurid. nauk [Legal mechanism of a state strategy to fight corruption in the Russian Federation: constitutional foundations: Cand. of legal sciences. diss.], Moscow. (In Russian).

Olson M. (2001) Power and Prosperity, New York: Basic Books.

Philp M. (2015) The Definition of Political Corruption. In: Heywood P.M. (ed.) Routledge Handbook of Political Corruption, London: Routledge, pp.17–29.

Pope J. (2000) Confronting Corruption: The Elements of a National Integrity System, Berlin: Transparency International.

Raban O. (2012) Constitutionalizing Corruption: Citizens United, Its Conceptions of Political Corruption, and the Implications for Judicial Elections Campaigns. University of San Francisco Law Review, vol.46, p.479–502.

Robinson J.A. (2001) When Is a State Predatory? Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Mimeo. Available at: https://wcfia.harvard.edu/files/wcfia/files/898_jr_predatory.pdf (accessed: 12.10.2019).

Roniger L. (2004) Political Clientelism, Democracy, and Market Economy. Comparative Politics, vol.36, no.3, pp.353–375.

Rose-Ackerman S. (1999) Corruption and Government: Causes, Consequences and Reform, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Satarov G.A. (ed.) (2004) Antikorruptsionnaya politika: Uchebnoe posobie [Anti-Corruption Policy: A Study Guide], Moscow: SPAS. (In Russian).

Sachs S.E. (2011) Corruption, Clients, and Political Machines: A Response to Professor Issacharoff. Harvard Law Review Forum, vol.124, pp.62–71.

Sedlenieks K. (2007) Parallel' mezhdu Latviey i Azande: korruptsiya kak koldovstvo v latviyskom obshchestve perekhodnogo perioda [Latvian-Azande parallel: corruption as witchcraft for Latvia during the transition]. In: Olimpieva I.B., Pachenkov O.V. (eds.) Bor'ba s vetryanymi mel'nitsami? Sotsial'no-antropologicheskiy podkhod k issledovaniyu korruptsii [Fighting windmills? Socio-anthropological approach to the study of corruption], Saint Petersburg: Aleteya. (In Russian).

Selikhov N.V. (2001) Korruptsiya v gosudarstvennom mekhanizme sovremennoy Rossii (teoreticheskie aspekty): Dis. … kand. yurid. nauk [Corruption in the state mechanism of contemporary Russia (theoretical aspects): Cand. of legal sciences. diss.], Ekaterinburg. (In Russian).

Senturia J. (1931) Corruption, Political. In: Encyclopedia of the Social Science, vol.4, New York: Macmillan, pp.448–452.

Shleifer A., Vishny R.W. (1993) Corruption. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, vol.108, no.3, pp.599–617.

Shestakov D.A. (2001) Politicheskaya kriminologiya – formiruyushchayasya otrasl' znaniy [Political criminology – an emerging branch of knowledge]. In: Burlakov V.N., Volkov Y.N., Salnikov V.P. (eds.) Politicheskiy rezhim i prestupnost' [Political regime and crime], Saint Petersburg: Yuridicheskiy tsentr “Press”. (In Russian).

Sheverdyaev S.N. (2016) Konstitutsionno-pravovye podkhody k razrabotke antikorruptsionnoy problematiki: osnovnye marshruty [Constitutional legal approaches to the development of the anti-corruption issues: main routes]. Sravnitel'noe konstitutsionnoe obozrenie, vol.113, no.4, pp.73–91. (In Russian).

Sheverdyaev S.N. (2016) Konstitutsionno-pravovoe protivodeystvie korruptsii: opredelenie mesta i znacheniya v sisteme antikorruptsionnoy politiki [Constitutional legal corruption countercheck: determining the place and importance in the system of anti-corruption policy]. In: Avak'yan S.A. (ed.) Protivodeystvie korruptsii: konstitutsionno-pravovye podkhody: kollektivnaya monografiya [Fighting corruption: constitutional approaches: a collective monograph], Moscow: Yustitsinform. (In Russian).

Sheverdyaev S.N. (2017) Vliyanie antikorruptsionnykh institutov rossiyskoy administrativnoy reformy na razvitie konstitutsionnogo zakonodatel'stva [The influence of the anti-corruption institutions of the Russian administrative reform on the development of constitutional legislation]. Pravo. Zhurnal Vysshey shkoly ekonomiki, no.1, pp.20–31. (In Russian).

Strauss D.A. (1994). Corruption, Equality, and Campaign Finance Reform. Columbia Law Review, vol.94, no.4, pp.1369–1389.

Teachout Z. (2009) The Anti-Corruption Principle. Cornell Law Review, vol.94, no.8, pp.342–414.

Thompson D.F. (1995) Ethics in Congress: From Individual to Institutional Corruption, Washington, DC: The Brookings Institution.

Timofeev L.M. (2000) Institutsional'naya korruptsiya [Institutional corruption], Moscow: RGGU. (In Russian).

Volzhenkin B.V. (2000) Korruptsiya v Rossii [Corruption in Russia]. In: Burlakov V.N., Sal'nikov V.P. (eds.) Kriminologiya – XX vek [Criminology – XX century], Saint Petersburg: Yuridicheskiy tsentr “Press”. (In Russian).

Warren M.E. (2015) The Meaning of Corruption in Democracies. In: Heywood P.M. (ed.) Routledge Handbook of Political Corruption, London: Routledge, pp.42–55.