Everyday the community is being stunned as reports of irregular practices compete for press headlines. The impression is that bribery and corruption, is one form or another is both extensive and increasing; although systematic statistics in this area are rare for obvious reasons.
What is corruption? This list of possibilities is extensive. It starts with the outright bribery of government officials and the more ambiguous question of political contributions; then there are a whole range of activities that could be considered to some degree corrupt-covering such things as the misuse of company assets for political favours, kickbacks and protection money for the police, payola to disc jockeys, sympathetic features articles in return for advertising revenue, free revenue, free junkets for MP's and journalists, secret price-fixing agreements, obtaining parts in films for reasons not wholly related to acting ability, insider dealing of various kinds, as well as improper use of the ?old boy? network.
All these forms of behaviour have one thing in common. They are attempts to influence the outcome of a decision where the nature of that influence is not made public. Essentially the practices are nothing more or less than the abuse of power.
There are several reasons for this spread of corrupt practices. First the concentration of power in larger and larger units; particularly when combined with rapid growth where the channels of accountability are underdeveloped. It is also widespread in ?mature? societies where highly developed networks attempt to preserve the ?status-quo? and further their vested interests.