The Effects of Corruption in a Developing Nation

STUDIES of politics and administration in the developing nations, whether about Africa, Latin America, the Middle East, or South and Southeast Asia, almost invariably comment upon the prevalence of corruption on the part of both politicians and civil servants. Standards of public morality, we are told, are deplorably low. Local observers within these countries confirm this impression. Where the press is free, governmental corruption becomes a stock-in-trade of a great deal of journalistic commentary. Local authorities themselves sometimes take up the subject of venality in government in order to determine its extent and recommend measures for its eradication. Then groups within prominent political parties raise their voices in criticism, not just of politicians in other parties, but more impressively of the deteriorating standards of behavior within their own ranks. The conclusion, on the basis of all this smoke, must be that corruption certainly exists in many developing nations. It would probably not be too much to say that it forms a prominent, or at least not readily avoidable, feature of bureaucratic life in these nations.