Talk:Corruption

Latest comment: 20 days ago by 102.221.95.247 in topic History

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment edit

  This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 31 August 2021 and 25 December 2021. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Bantonsen.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 19:31, 17 January 2022 (UTC)Reply

Spin-off organization edit

Unprecedented, the law of an industrial country directly condemned active corruption, particularly in international business transactions, which was at that time in contradiction to anti-bribery activities of the World Bank and its spin-off organization Transparency International.

Spin-off organization? Although it seems that Transparency International was founded by people from the World Bank, I've found no formal connection between them, so this kind of comment seems out of place. DracoDruida (talk) 16:15, 26 January 2016 (UTC)Reply

Terrible Quality Article edit

For such an important and core topic as corruption, this is an abysmal article. I'm truly ashamed and disgusted with how little information there is on this page and how terrible the quality of that information is. I've restructured the article and added several sections as well as flagging it for cleanup. I'll finish off the small descriptions I've started in a couple of hours. Snipergirl (talk) 04:03, 3 November 2012 (UTC)Reply

I've done some major cleanup and added multiple new stupid sections. Hopefully this helps, at least for now Snipergirl (talk) 05:56, 4 November 2012 (UTC)Reply

High rate of bad faith edits and deletions edit

Out of interest, a bunch of anonymous editors are deleting chunks of the article for no apparent reason (lulz?) Snipergirl (talk) 19:48, 4 November 2012 (UTC) Well.. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 173.2.204.250 (talk) 21:40, 5 April 2014 (UTC)Reply

Debauchery edit

What is wrong with wikipedia?????? I searched for Debauchery and I am at this page? dudes, are u lost? what is wikipedia about nowadays? would someone with sane mind add a page on Debauchery and related materiel on wikipedia, please, thank you. 119.155.17.224 (talk) 14:15, 2 September 2011 (UTC)Reply

Were you searching for "debauchery" as in the act/adjective? Or are you searching for the band. I do not believe that the "debauchery" act should redirect to this page. Could somebody discuss an alternative page for it to redirect to? Alec250 (talk) 22:18, 18 June 2014 (UTC)Reply

abuse? edit

A respected editor added the "abuse" template. It seemed to me that this was a bit of a stretch for third world countries, at any rate. There, officials that we would term "corrupt" are "just working the system" by their lights. They paid for their office, and continue to pay, and can only "make it work" by ripping off the citizenry.

First world perps may have psychological problems endemic to felons, but somehow the template seems to hint at "treatment" rather than the problem. Student7 (talk) 22:43, 22 July 2011 (UTC)Reply

er in abuse (like crime) the abuser stands to gain in some way, (either gaining financially, power, control etc). Similarly crime is often motivated as a way to alleviate poverty and gain wealth illegally by robbing etc. Also because there is a cultural norm of abuse whereby people abuse because it is expected of them - it is still abuse. Corruption is clearly abuse of the system in some way for the abusers benefit.--Penbat (talk) 09:04, 23 July 2011 (UTC)Reply
So this means that all felonies/anti-social behaviors get the "abuse" template? I can appreciate that we have thought that criminals could be reformed since the 19th century or so. This has proved somewhat elusive, however, no matter what "treatment" has been used. Maybe they are just "bad to the bone." Can we add the template for "original sin?" I think the latter may be closer to reality. Student7 (talk) 00:03, 25 July 2011 (UTC)Reply
Pretty much any bad deed where somebody or something suffers (whatever the motive) is an abuse but what is and isnt a crime is culturally determined. Whether or not the abuser gets treatment is irrelevant. --Penbat (talk) 17:29, 1 August 2011 (UTC)Reply


"Governmental corruption of judiciary" is a strange definition. Corrupt judges take money from anyone - NIOT typcially from the executive. Judicial corruption has nothing todo with the budget being controlled by the executive - which is the case everywhere, and does not "undermines the separation of powers, as it creates a critical financial dependence of the judiciary". No judiciary controls its own budget, in any country.
Probably couldn't happen today in first world countries, but in the 19th century, congress (or a president) simply dissolved a federal court of appeals "out west" that it didn't like! Other surrounding courts had their boundaries redefined to "absorb" the workload!
The second Roosevelt tried to "pack" a supreme court he didn't like. It failed but they got the message!
I remember in the 1970s, the US federal court(s?) raised it's own salaries to agree with the cost of living. Not sure if this stood the test of time or not. Student7 (talk) 17:46, 21 September 2011 (UTC)Reply

Future of corruption articles edit

Most of the "corrupt activities" seems now more like a "see also" subsection. "Abuse of the system" or "gaming the system" also is a bit "see also" subsection (with a link back to this page!). Just curious if one of you has some idea of a general thrust of these articles? Will they all be so similar, that they will require merging later?

My thought is that some stuff might be better off, if short and similarly named, in some sort of dab page. I'm just hoping you have an outline in mind. Student7 (talk) 20:35, 25 July 2011 (UTC)Reply

There is no definitive list of what is and isnt corruption but these are generally considered to be types of corruption: Category:Corruption--Penbat (talk) 17:25, 1 August 2011 (UTC)Reply

Im trying to get help. I can prove police corruption and have been blocked locally from persuing if you read this pls help me get justice. Jr schieber (talk) 21:12, 16 January 2018 (UTC)Reply

Information merged from the article Systemic corruption edit

The following information below within this section is from the talk page for the "Systemic corruption" article, which closed at its AfD discussion as Merge to this article. The comments within this section are from the article and specifically about the topic of "Systemic corruption". Northamerica1000(talk) 02:06, 31 January 2012 (UTC)Reply

john perkins edit

I added a lnk to "the confessions of an economic hitman". very interesting ..confession very sharp, and surprising if you are new to these geopolitical issues.

"This isn't a conspiracy theory type of thing, these people don't have to get together and ... is that they must maximize profits, regardless of the social and environmental cost"

Um...what? edit

This is the sketchiest Wikipedia article I've seen in a long time. If I knew anything about Wikipedia I would clean this up. Someone needs to edit this. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 148.85.195.243 (talk) 01:24, 23 October 2011 (UTC)Reply

Not sure it's possible. some users keep destroying whole sections of this article, others keep trying to erase it. I guess that naming examples of any kind hurt the national/group pride of some users. it's hard for it to grow or improve in these conditions.--Namaste@? 17:09, 21 January 2012 (UTC)Reply
This is a bloody terrible article and I'm fixing it. Snipergirl (talk) 03:32, 3 November 2012 (UTC)Reply
Generally the reorg was a sophisticated improvement. I question the use of "corporate" and "systemic" for classes. I understand your difference, but think they are used the same generally. I would keep systemic and change the name of "corporate" to something else. "Private?" This would also include unions BTW, which had no citation in the original article, but none of the material relating to private does here either. Student7 (talk) 21:39, 7 November 2012 (UTC)Reply
Good point. I've reorganised the article to have "sector of corruption". Citations will be added later. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Snipergirl (talkcontribs) 07:30, 10 November 2012 (UTC)Reply

Merge from "Systemic corruption" article complete edit

All information from the Systemic corruption article has been merged to this article, including its talk page contents (see above). Northamerica1000(talk) 02:11, 31 January 2012 (UTC)Reply

Teachers! edit

Teachers were guaranteed lifetime tenure and the ability to sell or will their jobs in rural areas, specifically, from Michoacan and Guerrero states. The government is trying to stop a practice in effect for almost 100 years. See Agren, David (December 10, 2012). "'Normalistas' fight changes in Mexico education system". Florida Today. Melbourne, Florida. pp. 4A.. Seems to be that there needs to be a general category somewhere under (executive or maybe even judicial) where a government employee may "sell" or will his job. Not being too judgmental here, it was "normal" for the British military to buy and sell officerships prior to the late 19th century. Student7 (talk) 22:11, 11 December 2012 (UTC)Reply

This may be not what you were talking about, but a system where government jobs would be sold to supporters via the spoils system or where people pay other people to fight in the army on their behalf; is that somewhat along the lines of what you were saying?Alec250 (talk) 22:28, 18 June 2014 (UTC)Reply
The British system was very transparent. A colonel might advertise his job for sale in the Times: "Colonelcy, 7th Regiment, ₤500. Contact ..." This was perfectly legal, if stupid!  :( The British realized it was stupid in the late 19th century and put a stop to it.
No. This is not a spoils system. Neither is it s "draft avoidance", typical (and legal) during the American Civil War.
The Mexican teacher job sales is more typical but usually less transparent. There is a job "available" if you know the right person and have a sum of money to pay for it. In this latter case, if you are a bureaucrat/police officer, you would lose money and not be able to eat if you did not manufacture "fees" for citizens with whom you do business. This is why corruption is so insidious and hard to remove. (The government does not take in sufficient income to pay these bureaucrats/police adequately). Student7 (talk) 21:09, 17 July 2015 (UTC)Reply

Rate edit

Blacklisted Links Found on Corruption edit

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Legal corruption edit

U rob me, what in your sources are you using to source, "Resounding efficiency in fostering corruption of German private corporations inside the EC against the then newly joined countries Portugal, Spain and Greece was achieved along with the establishment of the European single market in 1993. At that time foreign corruption was legalized by the Kohl administration." Please be aware of WP:SYNTHESIS. --NeilN talk to me 15:34, 5 April 2015 (UTC)Reply

OK, now I see what you mean. I will remove the "obvious" specific aim of the legalization of German corruption after the EC southern expansion and give only a general goal of its legalization. The "reason" for those new laws was given by the Kohl administration itself. U rob me (talk) 15:53, 5 April 2015 (UTC)Reply

Blacklisted Links Found on Corruption edit

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Blacklisted Links Found on Corruption edit

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Aristotle and Cicero on corruption edit

At present, the article states:

The word [i.e., corruption] was first used by Aristotle and later by Cicero who added the terms bribe and abandonment of good habits.

I don't have access to the cited source (Llaca, Corrupción: Patología Colectiva), so I can't check what is written there, but Aristotle cannot have used the word corruption since the English language did not exist yet when he lived. He can also not have used its etymon corruptio, since he did not know Latin. Maybe he used διαφθορά (diaphthora), which literally means "utter destruction" but was used in Ancient Greece also for corruption in a moral sense. It is possible that Latin corruptio used in that sense is originally a calque of Greek διαφθορά, but I don't know of any reliable source supporting this hypothesis. In any case, it is really strange to state that Aristotle was the first to use the word corruption. He very likely was also not the first to use the word διαφθορά. Perhaps his is the first recorded use of that word in the moral sense.

The statement that Cicero "added" the terms bribe and abandonment of good habits is also weird. I'm not even sure what it is supposed to mean, but the concepts of bribe and abandonment of good habits were both well known to the Greeks (including Aristotle) centuries before Cicero was born.  --Lambiam 21:05, 1 July 2015 (UTC)Reply

Definition edit

See wiktionary

"The act of corrupting or of impairing integrity, virtue, or moral principle; the state of being corrupted or debased; loss of purity or integrity; depravity; wickedness; impurity; bribery. "

"The act of changing, or of being changed, for the worse; departure from what is pure, simple, or correct; as, a corruption of style; corruption in language."

There is a singular, universal definition in common use - the failure of a public official to uphold the standards they were tasked with.

See oxforddictionaries.com "Dishonest or fraudulent conduct by those in power, typically involving bribery"

Black's law dictionary 2nd ed "Illegality; a vicious and fraudulent intention to evade the prohibitions of the law. The act of an official or fiduciary person who unlawfully and wrongfully uses his station or character to procure some benefit for himself or for another person, contrary to duty and the rights of others"

-- Callinus (talk) 16:54, 11 November 2015 (UTC)Reply

Corruption in-general is harm to system integrity.

Organization Corruption is the unethical and/or illegal allocation of organization resources and/or opportunities.

Organizations are sustained by members in support of a mission. Resources and opportunities are the assets available to best support the mission and all its members.

Administrative Mafia are groups of people that seize control of organization opportunities, a d allocate resources and opportunities for personal agendas, largely unrelated to the organization mission.

Stifling organization sustainability and growth.

Racketeering is two or more persons, cohorts, coalitions, and/or corporations that participate in corruption.

Treason is when any organization Representative or member, intentionally weakens organization security in support of corruption.

These distinctions are important, for general application and recognizing corruption.

Just because something is legal, doesn't mean it is ethical.

Members of organizations are often harmed a d unethically restricted from supporting the mission if the organization, by self serving figureheads in Boards, administration, and politically affluent.

Arrogance (loathing of others) is the most obvious indicator of corruption within an organization. Incompetent administrators cannot earn respect (conveyed trust), so they owe their positions to senior management who micromanage an administrative Mafia in support of organization corruption.

Guidepost.us

http://qesdunn.pbwiki.com (talk) 23:50, 20 February 2019 (UTC)Reply

Does not offer a complete picture edit

Though it begins with Zambian poster making you expect a coverage of corruption in all types of economy. It primary offers the first world view on corruption only since most of the talk is about foreign corruption act .The domestic corruptions in countries like China,India is not even mentioned. There is also,more than necessary focus on University corruption while several others like drug cartels of Latin americas,Defence deals, Developing country corruption in comtrast to developed country corruption ,corrupt practices in east asia ,middle east law's failure despite strong laws against it are not at all covered. Offers very limited myopic understanding of corruption as we know it-from a person of India who feels the coverage is highly on developed country perspective.Also " history " section is required & industrial age's contributiom to ... Happy sage (talk) 05:44, 22 June 2016 (UTC)Reply

Thanks for the comment. It probably means that the article requires a more global view. Dimadick (talk) 06:48, 24 June 2016 (UTC)Reply

Yo Kumarpratiyush25 (talk) 14:42, 20 July 2016 (UTC)Reply

Dr. Shah's comment on this article edit

Dr. Shah has reviewed this Wikipedia page, and provided us with the following comments to improve its quality:


General Comments: This article is a complete miss on the basic concepts, theory, history and potential remedies of corruption . Its discussion of sectoral corruption is also not useful, Overall this article needs to be completely re-written.

Specific Comments "Corruption is a form of dishonest or unethical conduct by a person entrusted with a position of authority, often to acquire personal benefit.[1] Corruption may include many activities including bribery and embezzlement, though it may also involve practices that are legal in many countries.[2] Government, or 'political', corruption occurs when an office-holder or other governmental employee acts in an official capacity for personal gain. Stephen D. Morris,[3] a professor of politics, writes that [political] corruption is the illegitimate use of public power to benefit a private interest. Economist Ian Senior[4] defines corruption as an action to (a) secretly provide (b) a good or a service to a third party (c) so that he or she can influence certain actions which (d) benefit the corrupt, a third party, or both (e) in which the corrupt agent has authority. Daniel Kaufmann,[5] from the World Bank, extends the concept to include 'legal corruption' in which power is abused within the confines of the law — as those with power often have the ability to make laws for their protection" . Not a useful definition of corruption. A better more concise definition is "exercise of official powers against public interest or the abuse of public office for private gains".

"Grand corruption is defined as corruption occurring at the highest levels of government in a way that requires significant subversion of the political, legal and economic systems". No , it represents "theft or misuse of vast amount of public resources"

"....enacting laws which use taxpayers' money." You mean "enacting laws to provide special preferences/benefits to special interest groups or to donors that provide political finance. [

"... improper sentencing of convicted criminals, bias in the hearing and judgement of arguments and other such misconduct." Only if such misconduct was motivated by bribes or other personal gains.

The section on foreign corrupt practices of OECD countries is useful. However the section on Historical responses in philosophical and religious thought is not focused on morality rather than corruption and is less useful/


We hope Wikipedians on this talk page can take advantage of these comments and improve the quality of the article accordingly.

We believe Dr. Shah has expertise on the topic of this article, since he has published relevant scholarly research:


  • Reference : Ivanyna, Maksym & Shah, Anwar, 2010. "Decentralization (localization) and corruption : new cross-country evidence," Policy Research Working Paper Series 5299, The World Bank.

ExpertIdeasBot (talk) 02:05, 2 October 2016 (UTC)Reply

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Systemic edit

Capitalism, as a basis for society, is essentially corruption of the concept of society itself, substituting personal accumulation (its essential principle) for the good of the whole (the principle of an incorrupt social order). This isn't really OR and can be sourced for the systemic § 98.4.124.117 (talk) 12:58, 20 October 2017 (UTC)Reply

This article needs help edit

This article needs help. First of all, there needs to be broader coverage of corruption. In another discussion on this page, an editor was disappointed that their country India was not covered, not because there is no corruption there or because they want corruption there, but because the editors were systemically biased. There are many other countries that are not covered as well. Furthermore, the article contains some original research. It also contains WP:MOS failures. Please improve this article.  — Mr. Guye (talk) (contribs)  01:07, 21 October 2017 (UTC)Reply

South American corporate crime has been added.05:55, 20 January 2018 (UTC)

Added Lithuania and Angola now.Trish pt7 (talk) 02:40, 21 January 2018 (UTC)Reply

Ancient India and Asteya edit

I've removed this [1] twice. Simply stealing, or using items without permission is a lack of temperance, and should not be discussed in the context of corruption. Meters (talk) 07:53, 2 June 2018 (UTC)Reply

Causes of corruption edit

Causes of corruption Greed of money, desires. Higher levels of market and political monopolization. Low levels of democracy, weak civil participation and low political transparency. Higher levels of bureaucracy and inefficient administrative structures. Low press freedom. Low economic freedom — Preceding unsigned comment added by Luniv33 (talkcontribs) 08:28, 14 December 2019 (UTC)Reply

A Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion edit

The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion:

Participate in the deletion discussion at the nomination page. —Community Tech bot (talk) 04:21, 30 January 2020 (UTC)Reply

Corporate corruption neutrality tag edit

The overtone of the section specifically discusses two firms which leads one to believe that there is bias through omission - that is, that these firms, while plagued with corruption, are given a bad look as one of the only examples of corruption. Specifically, the examples should be rewritten to have less of an impact, or even better, entirely disassociated from the section: i.e. "Firm XYZ is being investigated for corruption because ABC" should be rewritten to "ABC is one example of corruption and has been seen before" or something similar (with "has been seen before" linked to the original event page). Augend (talk) 20:20, 27 March 2020 (UTC)Reply

Military corruption in the United States Armed Forces edit

"One form of military corruption in the United States Armed Forces, is a military soldier being promoted in rank or being given better treatment than their colleagues by their officers, due to their race, sexual orientation, ethnicity, gender, religious beliefs, social class or personal relationships with higher-ranking officers in spite of their merit", apart from "personal relationships" (though more typically referred to as "nepotism" or "cronyism" depending on specifics), this sounds a lot like discrimination and not corruption ("[an action] undertaken by a person or an organization which is entrusted in a position of authority, in order to acquire illicit benefits or abuse power for one's personal gain.") if one does not use a very broad definition of benefits and personal gain. 79.138.18.89 (talk) 19:22, 15 July 2023 (UTC)Reply

Agree, even the source for that statement makes no mention of corruption. Greenman (talk) 20:46, 15 July 2023 (UTC)Reply

File:9 - euro bank notes hidden in sleeve - white background - royalty free, without copyright, public domain photo image.JPG edit

The File usage in article Corruption is rather useless. Who would carry banknotes in his sleeve ?? Discussion is there : File_talk:9_-_euro_bank_notes_hidden_in_sleeve_-_white_background_-_royalty_free,_without_copyright,_public_domain_photo_image.JPG Wisdood (talk) 08:48, 4 October 2023 (UTC)Reply

History edit

Immediate results of corruption to those who benefit from it 102.221.95.247 (talk) 17:06, 13 April 2024 (UTC)Reply