Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Corruption From A Cross-Cultural Perspective, John Hooker

John Hooker

This paper views corruption as activity that tends to undermine a cultural system. Because cultures operate in very different ways, different activities are corrupting in different parts of the world. The paper analyzes real-life situations in Japan, Taiwan, India, China, North America, sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East, and Korea to distinguish actions that structurally undermine a cultural system from those that are merely inefficient or are actually supportive. Activities such as nepotism or cronyism that are corrupting in the rule-based cultures of the West may be functional in relationship-based cultures. Behavior that is normal in the West, such as bringing …