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Corruption in Ukraine is recognized as a threat to national interests, sustainable development and European integration. Despite the significant efforts made by the state and international institutions to overcome corruption in the main spheres of public life, its level still remains high. When defining the essence of corruption, one should first of all proceed from the fact that it cannot be reduced to any specific socially dangerous act, to a specific offense. Corruption is the result of the historical development of society and the state, including Ukrainian society and the Ukrainian state. At the same time, in the last decade, corruption in Ukraine gained an unprecedented scope and influence on political, economic and other social processes. It іs found that the problems of countering corruption in Ukraine in many respects coincide with similar problems in other countries. This coincidence is caused by the same social essence of corruption as the corrosion of power, which consists in the abuse by officials of state authorities and local self-government bodies of power or official position for selfish or other personal interests. Regardless of the differences in the state system, the main socio-economic prerequisites of corruption are the same in principle for all countries − the imperfection of the mechanism of the exercise of power, the desire of subjects endowed with power to use this power for personal purposes, and the main directions of combating corruption − restrictions, neutralization and elimination of its social prerequisites, causes and conditions of corrupt acts, determination of restrictions and prohibitions for civil servants, establishment of responsibility for their violation. The reduction of corruption to a certain type of offense by a certain part of scientists and practitioners is one of the most significant mistakes in the understanding of corruption. Corruption is a social phenomenon that has social conditions, social patterns of development and exerts a negative influence on social processes. Existing in society and being a product of social relations, it permeates various social spheres of society, deforming social relations in different ways.
O. Y. Buchynskyi (Sun,) studied this question.