Essay on Corruption
The book examines the numerous aspects and dimensions of corruption which included reasons for the rise of corruption, the strategies involved, the monetary value, the kinds of good exchanged and the incidence in China since 1949. According to the author Julia Kwong, the reasons why corruption was so prominent since then were due to several factors- lack of resources, a high concentration of power which led to abuse of power by the state-officials at every level (the exchange of power for personal benefits), and the absence of an institutionalized criminal justice system. She has suggested that there was a relationship between corruption and the political economy, how the ideology and organizational structures under the socialism in china can at once restrain and encourage corruption. She has also explored how the corruption has gone through drastic change between 1949 to 1989 coincided with the change of socialism to the introduction of limited forms of market economy. Under the Classical Socialism which was between 1949 to 1976 when the corruption declined and under Market Socialism which was between 1976 to 1989 when the corruption start to increase and develop. She continued to examined how the socialist features of Chinese Society shaped the corruption in the economy sector, how the domination of Communist Party, the lack of private ownership, and the absence of free markets produced popular forms of gray corruption, such as administrators¡¯ breaking organizational rules to benefit the work unit or enjoying state property on the job. The author ended the book by proposing some solutions to the problems of corruption and searching for Honest Governance, how it will benefit both the people and the country as a whole.
We can write a custom essay on Corruption for you!
Chapter 1. The meaning of Corruption
In this chapter, Julia Kwong grappled with the meaning of corruption. Since this book focused on state employees and since the ruling group in any society legitimizes social conduct and sets the limits on proscribed behavior, she examined the legal administrative pronouncements that represented the dominant views of Chinese society on the matter. The legal code outlined narrow and behaviorally identifiable criteria of corruption to guide the behavior of the general public, whereas the rules of conduct provided by the Chinese government as the largest if not the sole employer specified expectations foe almost all of the country¡¯s working adults. She explored the meanings of corruption at these two levels and the changes in interpretations over times. From a plethora of nuances and meaning of corruption, she developed a simple generic definition: Corruption is breaking legal and organizational rules to use public goods or the power vested in one¡¯s public office for private ends. In short, it is the exchange of power for personal benefits.
Chapter 2. The Social Context
This chapter provided a useful background for readers not familiar with Chinese social development and delineated the background necessary to understand corruption in that country. The forty years between 1949 and 1989 coincided with the transition from socialism to introduction of limited forms of market economy. These changes were incremental, but for the purpose of my analysis she used the death of Mao Zedong in 1976 to divide these years into two broad periods and highlighted features of the political economy impinged on the work organization to influence the behavior of the administrative staff in the state bureaucracy.
Chapter 3. Socialist Mode of Corruption
In this chapter, Julia Kwong took a synchronic approach and examined how the socialist features of Chinese society shaped corruption in the economic sector. It identified three basic characteristics of communist governments and showed how the domination of the Communist Party, the lack of private ownership, and the absence of free markets produced popular forms of gray corruption, such as administrators¡¯ breaking organizational rules to benefits the work unit or enjoying state property on the job.
Chapter 4. The Parabola of Corruption
This chapter took a diachronic approach looking at the changed incorruption over time. Although the incidence of corruption, the monetary values involved, and the proportion of individual corruption increased over the years, there was no dramatic changed in the kinds of goods traded. However, fraud, speculation, and other means one generally associated with illicit strategies used in the market economy became more common.
The pre-1976 Chinese society characterized by a low level of production, a high concentration of power at the top, and a weak formal criminal justice system had a lower incidence of corruption than the post-1976 society, with higher production, better standards of living, greater local authority, and a more institutionalized criminal justice system. The trend observed here challenges the popular wisdom that attributes corruption to the lack of resources, a high concentration of power, and the absence of a strong criminal justice system. Thus, I sought an explanation to these changed in the shifting political economy of the society.
Chapter 5. The Dynamics of Corruption
This chapter pilled together the different observations to provide a theoretical understanding of corruption in socialist China. The answer offered is not dissimilar to John Hagan¡¯s power control theory, which attributed crimes to the differential power relations in the economic structure. Corruption is committed by those in power. While Hagan focused on the managers - power location in the organization, Julia Kwong ventured beyond its boundary to seek an explanation in the structure of the political economy. Administrators are always given more power than their subordinates. Vesting power in administrators is unavoidable in the functioning of any bureaucracy but this power can also be used as capital to exchange for goods and opportunities for their personal benefits. The propensity for this to happen rests not just on the conditions within the organizations, but changes in the political economy which structure the opportunities and constraints within the organizations. She used the transition from socialism to market socialism in China between 1949 and 1989 to illustrate how these structural changes shaped the authority and prerogative of state officials in the workplace and how the concomitant cultural changed shaped the ambience within the organizations. The specific congeries of these different forced within and outside the work organizations provides different opportunities and constraints, as well as moral restraints and incentives, for corruption, which in turn explains the evolution of and differences in corruption between the classical socialist and the market socialist period in China.
Chapter 6. A Look to the Future
At this last chapter, Julie Kwong said: ¡°Eight years have passed since the citizens of Beijing demonstrated against government corruption on Tian¡¯anmen Squaere. The anti-corruption campaigns launched in the aftermath of these demonstrations increased the supervision of state employees, and intensified the pressure on officials to follow administrative rules. These measures temporarily reduced corruption. But without any fundamental changes in the cultural climate and opportunity structures, the incidence of corruption and shade financial transactions have surpassed those of the eighties. At the same time, some forms of corruption popular in the late eighties declined. In her view, the political economy of corruption in China will be continues until the fundamental changes appear.
As a Chinese, after reading this book, I thought a lot of things. There is no doubt that the corruption is a very serious problem in China because I have lived personally in China myself for nearly 20 years. Every year, there are reports that government officials including senior officials, have been punished for corruption. Some were sentenced for taking bribes, others executed for embezzling funds. In Beijing alone nearly 60000 civil servants were found guilty of corruption in 1993. Official corruption has increased greatly in the past five years in only in scope but in magnitude. But I don't think the only solution is to change the cultural climate and opportunity structures. First, I want to point out I am not disagree with Julia Kwong. In my opinion, corruption is a popular problem in every country, in every different structure society, not just happen in China. USA, which is a typical country of capitalism too have a lot of political corruption. The corruption of the system may be best reflected in the 2000 presidential election. This election was literally stolen and then justified by legal maneuvering. Millions of Afro-American and other oppressed nationalities were denied their right to vote with all sorts of dirty tricks and police intimidation (and older Jewish people had their votes cast for the notorious anti-Semite Buchanan) culminating in 5 unelected individuals of the U.S. Supreme Court anointing and crowning an unelected and illegitimate leader of the imperialist camp, George W. Bush. Therefore, I think the corruption is a necessary path for every country when they are developing, even in some developed countries, it is inevitable.
- CAUTION! Free essay samples & essay examples on Corruption are 100% plagiarized!!!
At EssayLib.com - professional essay writing service - you can buy custom essays on Corruption topics, 100% written from scratch. EssayLib.com employs top-rated Ph.D. and Master's experts only to write superior-quality custom essays, term papers, research papers, thesis & dissertations at affordable rates. EssayLib.com knows HOW effectively to help high school, college & university students with writing the highest grade custom papers online.
Enjoy Our Professional Essay Writing Service!
