Political, Economic and Cultural Dimensions of Corruption: A Case of Developed and Developing Countries

Abstract

Corruption continues to be one of humanity’s biggest threat to security, prosperity and justice. It remains one of the most common social evils yet the most difficult to stop. Many scholars from different fields have sought to investigate the economic impact of corruption, the moral and ethical violations, legal consequences that corrupt people should face and the perception on corruption. Further studies have sought to rank countries from the most corrupt to the least corrupt countries in the world. Such comparative studies have given valuable information on the patterns of corruption but rarely provide explanation for the causes. This paper therefore seeks to examine whether there is a trend between corruption and social, political, cultural and religious spheres of selected countries from the developed and developing worlds. By relying on literature from government and non-governmental organisations, academic publications, media articles and publications from investigative agencies, this article finds that there is no consistent relationship between the socio -political, cultural and religious environment and corruption though strong political institutions are key agents in addressing corruption problem.