Spatial ability or visuo-spatial ability is the capacity to understand, reason, and remember the visual and spatial relations among objects or space.
Visual-spatial abilities
are used for everyday use from navigation, understanding or fixing
equipment, understanding or estimating distance and measurement, and
performing on a job. Spatial abilities are also important for success in
fields such as sports, technical aptitude, mathematics, natural sciences, engineering, economic forecasting, meteorology, chemistry and physics. Not only do spatial abilities involve understanding the outside world,
but they also involve processing outside information and reasoning with
it through representation in the mind.
Definition and types
Spatial ability is the capacity to understand, reason and remember the visual and spatial relations among objects or space. There are four common types of spatial abilities: spatial or
visuo-spatial perception, spatial visualization, mental folding and mental rotation. Each of these abilities has unique properties and importance to many
types of tasks whether in certain jobs or everyday life. For example,
spatial perception is defined as the ability to perceive spatial
relationships with respect to the orientation of one's body despite
distracting information. Mental rotation on the other hand is the mental ability to manipulate and rotate 2D or 3D objects in space quickly and accurately. Lastly, spatial visualization is characterized as complicated multi-step manipulations of spatially presented information. These three abilities are mediated and supported by a fourth spatial cognitive factor known as spatial working memory. Spatial working memory
is the ability to temporarily store a certain amount of visual-spatial
memories under attentional control in order to complete a task. This cognitive ability mediates individual differences in the capacity
for higher level spatial abilities such as mental rotation.
Spatial perception
Action shooting game: Use of spatial perceptual skills
Spatial perception is defined as the ability to perceive spatial
relationships in respect to the orientation of one's body despite
distracting information. It consists of being able to perceive and visually understand outside
spatial information such as features, properties, measurement, shapes,
position and motion. For example, when one is navigating through a dense forest they are
using spatial perception and awareness. Another example is when trying
to understand the relations and mechanics inside of a car, they are
relying on their spatial perception to understand its visual framework.
Tests that measure spatial perception include the rod and frame test, where subjects must place a rod vertically while viewing a frame orientation of 22 degrees in angle, or the water-level task, where subjects have to draw or identify a horizontal line in a tilted bottle.
Spatial perception is also very relevant in sports. For example, a study found that cricket
players who were faster at picking up information from briefly
presented visual displays were significantly better batsmen in an actual
game. A 2015 study published in the Journal of Vision
found that soccer players had higher perceptual ability for body
kinematics such as processing multitasking crowd scenes which involve
pedestrians crossing a street or complex dynamic visual scenes. Another study published in the Journal of Human Kinetics
on fencing athletes found that achievement level was highly correlated
with spatial perceptual skills such as visual discrimination,
visual-spatial relationships, visual sequential memory, narrow
attentional focus and visual information processing. A review published in the journal Neuropsychologia
found that spatial perception involves attributing meaning to an object
or space, so that their sensory processing is actually part of semantic
processing of the incoming visual information. The review also found that spatial perception involves the human visual system in the brain and the parietal lobule which is responsible for visuomotor processing and visually goal-directed action. Studies have also found that individuals who played first person
shooting games had better spatial perceptual skills like faster and more
accurate performance in a peripheral and identification task while
simultaneously performing a central search. Researchers suggested that, in addition to enhancing the ability to
divide attention, playing action games significantly enhances
perceptual skills like top-down guidance of attention to possible target
locations.
Mental rotation
Rubik's Cube: a popular puzzle that involves 3D mental rotation
Mental rotation is the ability to mentally represent and rotate
2D and 3D objects in space quickly and accurately, while the object's
features remain unchanged. Mental representations of physical objects
can help utilize problem solving and understanding. For example, Hegarty
(2004) showed that people manipulate mental representations for
reasoning about mechanical problems, such as how gears or pulleys work. Similarly, Schwartz and Black (1999) found that doing such mental
simulations such as pouring water improves people's skill to find the
solution to questions about the amount of tilt required for containers
of different heights and widths. In the field of sports psychology, coaches for a variety of sports
(e.g. basketball, gymnastics, soccer or golf) have promoted players to
use mental imagery and manipulation as one technique for performance in
their game. (Jones & Stuth, 1997) Recent research (e.g., Cherney, 2008) has also demonstrated evidence
that playing video games with consistent practice can improve mental
rotation skills, for example improvements in women's scores after
practice with a game that involved a race within a 3-D environment. Same effects have been seen playing action video games such as Unreal Tournament as well as the popular mainstream game Tetris. Jigsaw puzzles and Rubik's Cube are also activities that involve higher level of mental rotation and can be practiced to improve spatial abilities over time.
Mental rotation is also unique and distinct from the other spatial abilities because it also involves areas associated with motor simulation in the brain.
Spatial visualization is characterized as complicated multi-step manipulations of spatially presented information. It involves visual imagery which is the ability to mentally represent visual appearances of an object, and spatial imagery which consists of mentally representing spatial relations between the parts or locations of the objects or movements.
Spatial visualization is especially important in the domains of
science and technology. For example, an astronomer must mentally
visualize the structures of a solar system and the motions of the
objects within it. An engineer mentally visualizes the interactions of the parts of a
machine or building that they are assigned to design or work with. Chemists must be able to understand formulas which can be viewed as
abstract models of molecules with most of the spatial information
deleted; spatial skills are important in restoring that information when
more detailed mental models of the molecules are needed in the
formulas.
Spatial visualization also involves imagining and working with
visual details of measurement, shapes, motion, features and properties
through mental imagery and using this spatial relations to derive at an
understanding to a problem. Whereas spatial perception involves
understanding externally via the senses, spatial visualization is the
understanding internally through mental imagery in one's mind.
Another critical spatial visualization ability is mental animation. Mental animation is mentally visualizing the motion and movement of components within any form of system or in general. It is an ability highly crucial in mechanical reasoning and
understanding, for example mental animation in mechanical tasks can
involve deconstructing a pulley system mentally into smaller units and
animating them in the corresponding sequence or laws in the mechanical
system. In short, mental animation is mental imagining how mechanical objects work by analyzing the motion of their smaller parts.
Mental folding is a complex spatial visualization that involves the folding of 2D pattern or material into 3D objects and representations. Compared to other studies, mental folding has had relatively little
research and study. In comparison to mental rotation, mental folding is a
non-rigid spatial transformation ability which means features of the
manipulated object end up changing unlike mental rotation. In rigid
manipulations, the object itself is not changed but rather its spatial
position or orientation is, whereas in non-rigid transformations like
mental folding the object and shapes are changed. Mental folding in tasks usually require a series of mental rotations to
sequentially fold the object into a new one. Classic mental folding
tests are the Paper folding task which is similar to Origami. Origami also requires mental folding by assessing folding a 2D paper enough times to create a 3D figure.
Visual penetrative ability is least common spatial
visualization task which involves ability to imagine what is inside an
object based on the features outside.
Spatial working memory
Spatial working memory is the ability to temporarily store visual-spatial memories under attentional control, in order to complete a task. This cognitive ability mediates individual differences in the capacity
for higher level spatial abilities, such as mental rotation. Spatial
working memory involves storing large amounts of short-term spatial
memories in relation to visuo-spatial sketchpad. It is used in the
temporary storage and manipulation of visual-spatial information such as
memorizing shapes, colours, location or motion of objects in space. It
is also involved in tasks which consist of planning of spatial
movements, like planning one's route through a complex building. The
visuospatial sketchpad can be split into separate visual, spatial and
possibly kin-aesthetic (movement) components. Its neurobiological
function also correlates within the right hemisphere of the brain.
Sex differences in humans
In
an extensive review of research into sex differences, Maccoby and
Jacklin reported that males generally perform better on spatial ability
tasks than do females, in congruence to other research findings. They also found that practice leads to rapid enhancements in spatial ability in both sexes.
Vocational applications
Researchers have found that spatial ability plays an important role in advanced educational credentials in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). From studies, it has been indicated that the probability of getting an
advanced degree in STEM increases in positive relation to the level of
one's spatial ability. For example, a 2009 study published in the Journal of Educational Psychology
found that 45% of those with STEM PhDs were within top percentage of
high spatial ability in a group of 400,000 participants who were
analyzed for 11 years since they were in the 12th grade. Only less than 10% of those with STEM PhDs were below the top quarter in spatial ability during adolescence. The researchers then concluded how important spatial ability is for
STEM and as a factor in achieving advanced educational success in that
field.
Spatial visualization is especially important in science and technology. For example, an astronomer must visually imagine the structures of a solar system, and the path of the bodies within it. An engineer must visually imagine the motions of the parts of a machine or building that they are assigned to work with. Chemists must be able to understand formulas which are essentially
abstract models supposed to represent spatial dynamics of molecules, and
thus spatial skills are important in visualizing the molecule models
that are needed in the formulas. Spatial manipulation ability is also important in the field of
structural geology, when visually imagining how rocks change through
time, such as migration of a magma body through crust or progressive
folding of a strati-graphic succession. Another spatial visualization
skill known as visual penetrative ability is important in geology as it requires geologists to visualize what is inside of a solid object based on past knowledge.
Current literature also indicates that mathematics involves
visuo-spatial processing. Studies have found that gifted students in
math, for instance, perform better in spatial visualization than
non-gifted students. A 2008 review published in the journal of Neuroscience Biobehavioural Reviews
found evidence that visuo-spatial processing is intuitively involved in
many aspects of processing numbers and calculating in math. For
example, meaning of a digit in a multi-digit number is coded following
spatial information given its relation to its position within the
number. Another study found that numerical estimation might rely on integrating
different visual-spatial cues (diameter, size, location, measurement)
to infer an answer. A study published in 2014 also found evidence that mathematical
calculation relies on the integration of various spatial processes. Another 2015 study published in the journal of Frontiers in Psychology also found that numerical processing and arithmetic performance may rely on visual perceptual ability.
A 2007 study published in the journal of Cognitive Science also found that spatial visualization ability is crucial for solving kinematic problems in physics. Nonetheless, current literature indicates that spatial abilities
specifically mental rotation, is crucial for achieving success in
various fields of chemistry, engineering and physics.
Map of the Corruption Perceptions Index, 2024,
as scored by Transparency international. A higher score indicates
greater transparency (i.e., less corruption). The score ranges are:
Over time, corruption has been defined differently. For example,
while performing work for a government or as a representative, it is
unethical to accept a gift. Any free gift could be construed as a scheme
to lure the recipient towards some biases. In most cases, the gift is
seen as an intention to seek certain favors, such as work promotion,
tipping in order to win a contract, job, or exemption from certain tasks
in the case of junior worker handing in the gift to a senior employee
who can be key in winning the favor.
Some forms of corruption, now called "institutional corruption", are distinguished from bribery and other kinds of obvious personal
gain. For example, certain state institutions may consistently act
against the interests of the public, such as by misusing public funds
for their own interest, or by engaging in illegal or immoral behavior
with impunity. Bribery and overt criminal acts by individuals may not
necessarily be evident but the institution nonetheless acts immorally as
a whole. The mafia state phenomenon is an example of institutional corruption.
An illegal act by an officeholder constitutes political
corruption only if the act is directly related to their official duties,
is done under color of law
or involves trading in influence. The activities that constitute
illegal corruption differ depending on the country or jurisdiction. For
instance, some political funding practices that are legal in one place
may be illegal in another. In some cases, government officials have
broad or ill-defined powers, which make it difficult to distinguish
between legal and illegal actions. Worldwide, bribery alone is estimated
to involve over 1 trillion US dollars annually. A state of unrestrained political corruption is known as a kleptocracy, literally meaning "rule by thieves".
Corruption is a difficult concept to define. A proper definition of
corruption requires a multi-dimensional approach. Machiavelli
popularized the oldest dimension of corruption as the decline of virtue
among political officials and the citizenry. The psychologist
Horst-Eberhard Richter's modernized version defines corruption as the
undermining of political values. Corruption as the decline of virtue has
been criticized as too broad and far too subjective to be
universalized. The second dimension of corruption is corruption as
deviant behavior. Sociologist Christian Höffling and economist J. J.
Sentuira both characterized corruption as social illness; the latter
defined corruption as the misuse of public power for one's profit. The
third dimension is the quid pro quo.
Corruption always is an exchange between two or more persons/parties
where the persons/parties possess economic goods, and the other
person/parties possess a transferred power to be used, according to
fixed rules and norms, toward a common good. Fourth, there are also
different levels of societal perception of corruption. Heidenheimer
divides corruption into three categories. The first category is called
white corruption; this level of corruption is mostly viewed with
tolerance and may even be lawful and legitimate; typically based on
family ties and patron-client systems. The type of corruption often
occurring in constitutional states or state transitioning to a more
democratic society is called grey corruption is considered reprehensible
according to a society's moral norms, but the persons involved are
still mostly lacking any sense of doing something wrong. The third
category, black corruption is so severe that it violates a society's
norms and laws. The final dimension is called "shadow politics"; this is
part of the informal political process that goes beyond legitimate
informal political agreements to behavior that is purposefully
concealed.
Consequences
Consequences on politics, administration, and institutions
Countries with politicians, public officials or close associates implicated in the Panama Papers leak on April 15, 2016
Political corruption undermines democracy and good governance by flouting or even subverting formal processes. Corruption in elections and in the legislature reduces accountability and distorts representation in policymaking; corruption in the judiciary compromises the rule of law; and corruption in public administration results in the inefficient provision of services. For republics, it violates a basic principle of republicanism regarding the centrality of civic virtue. More generally, corruption erodes the institutional capacity of
government if procedures are disregarded, resources are siphoned off,
and public offices are bought and sold. Corruption undermines the legitimacy of government and democratic values such as political trust.
Recent evidence suggests that variation in the levels of corruption
amongst high-income democracies can vary significantly depending on the
level of accountability of decision-makers.
Evidence from fragile states shows that corruption and bribery can adversely impact trust in institutions. Corruption can also impact government's provision of goods and
services. It increases the costs of goods and services which arise from
efficiency loss. In the absence of corruption, governmental projects
might be cost-effective at their true costs; however, once corruption
costs are included projects may not be cost-effective so they are not
executed distorting the provision of goods and services.
Consequences on economy
In the private sector,
corruption increases the cost of business through the price of illicit
payments themselves, the management cost of negotiating with officials
and the risk of breached agreements or detection. Although some claim
corruption reduces costs by cutting bureaucracy,
the availability of bribes can also induce officials to contrive new
rules and delays. Openly removing costly and lengthy regulations are
better than covertly allowing them to be bypassed by using bribes. Where
corruption inflates the cost of business, it also distorts the field of
inquiry and action, shielding firms with connections from competition
and thereby sustaining inefficient firms.
Corruption may have a direct impact on the firm's effective
marginal tax rate. Bribing tax officials can reduce tax payments of the
firm if the marginal bribe rate is below the official marginal tax rate. However, in Uganda, bribes have a higher negative impact on firms'
activity than taxation. Indeed, a one percentage point increase in
bribes reduces firm's annual growth by three percentage points, while an
increase in 1 percentage point on taxes reduces firm's growth by one
percentage point.
Corruption also generates economic distortion in the public sector by diverting public investment into capital projects where bribes and kickbacks
are more plentiful. Officials may increase the technical complexity of
public sector projects to conceal or pave the way for such dealings,
thus further distorting investment. Corruption also lowers compliance with construction, environmental, or
other regulations, reduces the quality of government services and
infrastructure, and increases budgetary pressures on government.
Economists argue that one of the factors behind the differing economic development in Africa and Asia is that in Africa, corruption has primarily taken the form of rent extraction with the resulting financial capital moved overseas rather than invested at home (hence the stereotypical, but often accurate, image of African dictators having Swiss bank accounts). In Nigeria, for example, more than $400 billion was stolen from the treasury by Nigeria's leaders between 1960 and 1999.
University of Massachusetts Amherst researchers estimated that from 1970 to 1996, capital flight from 30 Sub-Saharan countries totaled $187bn, exceeding those nations' external debts. (The results, expressed in retarded or suppressed development, have been modeled in theory by economist Mancur Olson.)
In the case of Africa, one of the factors for this behavior was
political instability and the fact that new governments often
confiscated previous government's corruptly obtained assets. This
encouraged officials to stash their wealth abroad, out of reach of any
future expropriation. In contrast, Asian administrations such as Suharto's New Order
often took a cut on business transactions or provided conditions for
development, through infrastructure investment, law and order, etc.
Corruption is often most evident in countries with the smallest per
capita incomes, relying on foreign aid for health services. Local
political interception of donated money from overseas is especially
prevalent in Sub-Saharan African nations, where it was reported in the 2006 World Bank Report
that about half of the funds that were donated for health usages were
never invested into the health sectors or given to those needing medical
attention. Instead, the donated money was expended through "counterfeit drugs,
siphoning off of drugs to the black market, and payments to ghost
employees". Ultimately, there is a sufficient amount of money for health
in developing countries, but local corruption denies the wider
citizenry the resource they require.
Corruption facilitates environmental destruction. While corrupt
societies may have formal legislation to protect the environment, it
cannot be enforced if officials can easily be bribed. The same applies
to social rights worker protection, unionization prevention, and child labor.
Violation of these laws rights enables corrupt countries to gain
illegitimate economic advantage in the international market. The Nobel Prize-winning economist Amartya Sen
has observed that "there is no such thing as an apolitical food
problem." While drought and other naturally occurring events may trigger
famine
conditions, it is government action or inaction that determines its
severity, and often even whether or not a famine will occur.
Governments with strong tendencies towards kleptocracy can undermine food security even when harvests are good. Officials often steal state property. In Bihar, India, more than 80% of the subsidized food aid to poor is stolen by corrupt officials. Similarly, food aid is often robbed at gunpoint by governments,
criminals, and warlords alike, and sold for a profit. The 20th century
is full of many examples of governments undermining the food security of
their own nations – sometimes intentionally.
Effects on humanitarian aid
The scale of humanitarian aid to the poor and unstable regions of the world grows, but it is highly vulnerable to corruption, with food aid, construction and other highly valued assistance as the most at risk. Food aid can be directly and physically diverted from its intended
destination, or indirectly through the manipulation of assessments,
targeting, registration and distributions to favor certain groups or
individuals.
In construction and shelter there are numerous opportunities for
diversion and profit through substandard workmanship, kickbacks for
contracts and favouritism in the provision of valuable shelter material. Thus while humanitarian aid agencies are usually most concerned about
aid being diverted by including too many, recipients themselves are most
concerned about exclusion. Access to aid may be limited to those with connections, to those who pay bribes or are forced to give sexual favors. Equally, those able to do so may manipulate statistics to inflate the
number of beneficiaries and siphon off additional assistance.
Malnutrition, illness, wounds, torture, harassment of specific
groups within the population, disappearances, extrajudicial executions
and the forcible displacement of people are all found in many armed
conflicts. Aside from their direct effects on the individuals concerned,
the consequences of these tragedies for local systems must also be
considered: the destruction of crops and places of cultural importance,
and the breakdown of economic infrastructure and of health-care
facilities such as hospitals.
Corruption is said by Nazim et al, to play a huge role in health
care system starting from the hospital to the government and lifted to
the other institutions that promote quality and affordable health care
to the people.
In the context of political corruption, a bribe may involve a payment
given to a government official in exchange of his use of official
powers. Bribery requires two participants: one to give the bribe, and
one to take it. Either may initiate the corrupt offering; for example, a
customs official may demand bribes to let through allowed (or
disallowed) goods, or a smuggler might offer bribes to gain passage. In
some countries the culture of corruption extends to every aspect of
public life, making it extremely difficult for individuals to operate
without resorting to bribes. Bribes may be demanded in order for an
official to do something he is already paid to do. They may also be
demanded in order to bypass laws and regulations. In addition to their
role in private financial gain, bribes are also used to intentionally
and maliciously cause harm to another (i.e. no financial incentive). In some developing nations, up to half of the population has paid bribes during the past 12 months.
The Council of Europe dissociates active and passive bribery and to incriminates them as separate offences:
One can define active bribery
as "the promising, offering or giving by any person, directly or
indirectly, of any undue advantage to any of its public officials, for
himself or herself or for anyone else, for him or her to act or refrain
from acting in the exercise of his or her functions" (article 2 of the
Criminal Law Convention on Corruption (ETS 173) of the Council of Europe).
Passive bribery
can be defined as "when committed intentionally, the request or receipt
by any ... public officials, directly or indirectly, of any undue
advantage, for himself or herself or for anyone else, or the acceptance
of an offer or a promise of such an advantage, to act or refrain from
acting in the exercise of his or her functions" (article 3 of the
Criminal Law Convention on Corruption (ETS 173)).
This dissociation aims to make the early steps (offering, promising,
requesting an advantage) of a corrupt deal already an offence and, thus,
to give a clear signal (from a criminal-policy point-of-view) that
bribery is not acceptable. Furthermore, such a dissociation makes the prosecution of bribery
offences easier since it can be very difficult to prove that two parties
(the bribe-giver and the bribe-taker) have formally agreed upon a
corrupt deal. In addition, there is often no such formal deal but only a
mutual understanding, for instance when it is common knowledge in a
municipality that to obtain a building permit one has to pay a "fee" to
the decision maker to obtain a favorable decision. A working definition
of corruption is also provided as follows in article 3 of the Civil Law
Convention on Corruption (ETS 174). For the purpose of this Convention, "corruption" means requesting,
offering, giving or accepting, directly or indirectly, a bribe or any
other undue advantage or prospect thereof, which distorts the proper
performance of any duty or behavior required of the recipient of the
bribe, the undue advantage or the prospect thereof.
Reformers like the American Joseph Keppler depicted the Senate as controlled by the giant moneybags, who represented the nation's financial trusts and monopolies.
Trading in influence, or influence peddling, refers to a person
selling his/her influence over the decision-making process to benefit a
third party (person or institution). The difference with bribery is that
this is a tri-lateral relation. From a legal point of view, the role of
the third party (who is the target of the influence) does not really
matter although he/she can be an accessory in some instances.
Some forms of lobbying
can be difficult to distinction from some forms of illegal political
corruption for instance law- or decision-makers can freely "sell" their
vote, decision power or influence to those lobbyists who offer the
highest compensation, including where for instance the latter act on
behalf of powerful clients such as industrial groups who want to avoid
the passing of specific environmental, social, or other regulations
perceived as too stringent, etc. Where lobbying is (sufficiently)
regulated, it becomes possible to provide for a distinctive criteria and
to consider that trading in influence involves the use of "improper
influence", as in article 12 of the Criminal Law Convention on
Corruption (ETS 173) of the Council of Europe.
Patronage refers to favoring supporters, for example with government
employment. This may be legitimate, as when a newly elected government
changes the top officials in the administration in order to effectively
implement its policy. It can be seen as corruption if this means that
incompetent persons, as a payment for supporting the regime, are
selected before more able ones. In nondemocracies many government
officials are often selected for loyalty rather than ability. They may
be almost exclusively selected from a particular group (for example, Sunni Arabs in Saddam Hussein's Iraq, the nomenklatura in the Soviet Union, or the Junkers in Imperial Germany) that support the regime in return for such favors. A similar problem can also be seen in Eastern Europe, for example in Romania, where the government is often accused of patronage (when a new government comes to power it rapidly changes most of the officials in the public sector).
Favoring relatives (nepotism) or personal friends (cronyism) of an
official is a form of illegitimate private gain. This may be combined
with bribery, for example demanding that a business should employ a relative
of an official controlling regulations affecting the business. The most
extreme example is when the entire state is inherited, as in North Korea or Syria.
A lesser form might be in the Southern United States with Good ol'
boys, where women and minorities are excluded. A milder form of cronyism
is an "old boy network",
in which appointees to official positions are selected only from a
closed and exclusive social network – such as the alumni of particular
universities – instead of appointing the most competent candidate.
Seeking to harm enemies becomes corruption when official powers are
illegitimately used as means to this end. For example, trumped-up
charges are often brought up against journalists or writers who bring up
politically sensitive issues, such as a politician's acceptance of
bribes.
Gombeenism refers to an individual who is dishonest and corrupt for
the purpose of personal gain, often monetary, while parochialism, which
is also known as parish pump politics, relates to placing local or
vanity projects ahead of the national interest. For instance in Irish politics, populist left wing political parties will often apply these terms to mainstream establishment political parties and will cite the many cases of Corruption in Ireland, such as the Irish Banking crisis, which found evidence of bribery, cronyism and collusion,
where in some cases politicians who were coming to the end of their
political careers would receive a senior management or committee
position in a company they had dealings with.
Electoral fraud is illegal interference with the process of an election. Acts of fraud
affect vote counts to bring about an election result, whether by
increasing the vote share of the favored candidate, depressing the vote
share of the rival candidates, or both. Also called voter fraud, the
mechanisms involved include illegal voter registration, intimidation at
polls, voting computer hacking, and improper vote counting.
Malaysia's former Prime Minister Najib Razak was found guilty in the corruption trial over the multi-billion-dollar 1MDB scandal. He is currently serving his sentence in Kajang Prison.
Embezzlement is the theft of entrusted funds. It is political when it
involves public money taken by a public official for use by anyone not
specified by the public. Ponzi schemes
are an example of embezzlement. Some embezzlers "skim off the top" so
that they continually acquire a small amount over a particular time
interval. This method reduces the likelihood of being caught. On the
other hand, some embezzlers steal a very large amount of goods or funds
in a single instance and then disappear. Sometimes company managers
underreport income to their supervisors and keep the difference. A
common type of embezzlement is that of personal use of entrusted
government resources; for example, when an official assigns public
employees to renovate his own house.
A kickback is an official's share of misappropriated funds allocated from his or her organization to an organization involved in corrupt bidding. For example, suppose that a politician is in charge of choosing how to spend some public funds. He can give a contract to a company
that is not the best bidder, or allocate more than they deserve. In
this case, the company benefits, and in exchange for betraying the
public, the official receives a kickback payment, which is a portion of
the sum the company received. This sum itself may be all or a portion of
the difference between the actual (inflated) payment to the company and
the (lower) market-based price that would have been paid had the
bidding been competitive. Another example of a kickback would be if a
judge receives a portion of the profits that a business makes in
exchange for his judicial decisions. Kickbacks are not limited to
government officials; any situation in which people are entrusted to
spend funds that do not belong to them are susceptible to this kind of
corruption.
An unholy alliance is a coalition among seemingly antagonistic groups for ad hoc
or hidden gain, generally some influential non-governmental group
forming ties with political parties, supplying funding in exchange for
favorable treatment. Like patronage, unholy alliances are not
necessarily illegal, but unlike patronage, by its deceptive nature and
often great financial resources, an unholy alliance can be more
dangerous to the public interest. An early use of the term was by former United States president Theodore Roosevelt
("To destroy this invisible Government, to dissolve the unholy alliance
between corrupt business and corrupt politics is the first task of the
statesmanship of the day") from the 1912 Progressive Party platform, which is attributed to Roosevelt, and also quoted again in his autobiography, where he connects trusts and monopolies (sugar interests, Standard Oil, etc.) to Woodrow Wilson, Howard Taft, and consequently both major political parties.
An illustrative example of official involvement in organized crime can be found from the 1920s and 1930s Shanghai, where Huang Jinrong was a police chief in the French concession, while simultaneously being a gang boss and co-operating with Du Yuesheng, the local gang
ringleader. The relationship kept the flow of profits from the gang's
gambling dens, prostitution, and protection rackets undisturbed and
safe. The United States accused Manuel Noriega's government in Panama of being a "narcokleptocracy", a corrupt government profiting on illegal drug trade. Later the U.S. invaded Panama and captured Noriega.
Conditions favorable for corruption
Some research indicates that political corruption is contagious: the
revelation of corruption in a sector leads others in the sector to
engage in corruption.[42] It is argued[by whom?] that the following conditions are favorable for corruption:
Information deficits
Lacking freedom of information legislation. In contrast, for example: The Indian Right to Information Act
2005 is perceived to have "already engendered mass movements in the
country that is bringing the lethargic, often corrupt bureaucracy to its
knees and changing power equations completely."
Lack of investigative reporting in the local media.
Weak accounting practices, including lack of timely financial management.
Lack of measurement of corruption. For example, using regular
surveys of households and businesses in order to quantify the degree of
perception of corruption in different parts of a nation or in different
government institutions may increase awareness of corruption and create
pressure to combat it. This will also enable an evaluation of the
officials who are fighting corruption and the methods used.
Tax havens
which tax their own citizens and companies but not those from other
nations and refuse to disclose information necessary for foreign
taxation. This enables large-scale political corruption in the foreign
nations.
Lack of benchmarking,
that is continual detailed evaluation of procedures and comparison to
others who do similar things, in the same government or others, in
particular comparison to those who do the best work. The Peruvian
organization Ciudadanos al Dia has started to measure and compare
transparency, costs, and efficiency in different government departments
in Peru. It annually awards the best practices which has received
widespread media attention. This has created competition among
government agencies in order to improve.
Individual officials routinely handle cash, instead of handling payments by giro or on a separate cash desk – illegitimate withdrawals from supervised bank accounts are much more difficult to conceal.
Public funds are centralized rather than distributed. For example,
if $1,000 is embezzled from a local agency that has $2,000 funds, it is
easier to notice than from a national agency with $2,000,000 funds. See
the principle of subsidiarity.
Large, unsupervised public investments.
Pay disproportionately lower than that of the average citizen.
Government licenses needed to conduct business, e.g., import licenses, encourage bribing and kickbacks.
Long-time work in the same position may create relationships inside
and outside the government which encourage and help conceal corruption
and favoritism. Rotating government officials to different positions and
geographic areas may help prevent this; for instance certain high rank
officials in French government services (e.g. treasurer-paymasters general) must rotate every few years.
Costly political campaigns, with expenses exceeding normal sources of political funding, especially when funded with taxpayer money.
A single group or family controlling most of the key government
offices. Lack of laws forbidding and limiting number of members of the
same family to be in office .
Less interaction with officials reduces the opportunities for
corruption. For example, using the Internet for sending in required
information, like applications and tax forms, and then processing this
with automated computer systems. This may also speed up the processing
and reduce unintentional human errors. See e-Government.
A windfall from exporting abundant natural resources may encourage corruption. (See Resource curse)
War and other forms of conflict correlate with a breakdown of public security.
Tribal solidarity, giving benefits to certain ethnic groups. In the
Indian political system, for example, it has become common that the
leadership of national and regional parties are passed from generation
to generation, creating a system in which a family holds the center of power. Some examples are most of the Dravidian parties of south India and also the Nehru-Gandhi family of the Congress party, which is one of the two major political parties in India.
Lack of strong laws which forbid members of the same family to
contest elections and be in office as in India where local elections are
often contested between members of the same powerful family by standing
in opposite parties so that whoever is elected that particular family
is at tremendous benefit.
Media
Thomas Jefferson
observed a tendency for "The functionaries of every government ... to
command at will the liberty and property of their constituents. There
is no safe deposit [for liberty and property] ... without information.
Where the press is free, and every man able to read, all is safe."
Recent research supports Jefferson's claim. Brunetti and Weder found
"evidence of a significant relationship between more press freedom and
less corruption in a large cross-section of countries." They also
presented "evidence which suggests that the direction of causation runs
from higher press freedom to lower corruption." Adserà, Boix, and Payne found that increases in newspaper readership led to increased political accountability and lower corruption in data from roughly 100 countries and from different states in the US.
Snyder and Strömberg found "that a poor fit between newspaper
markets and political districts reduces press coverage of politics. ...
Congressmen who are less covered by the local press work less for their
constituencies: they are less likely to stand witness before
congressional hearings ... . Federal spending is lower in areas where
there is less press coverage of the local members of congress." Schulhofer-Wohl and Garrido found that the year after the Cincinnati Post
closed in 2007, "fewer candidates ran for municipal office in the
Kentucky suburbs most reliant on the Post, incumbents became more likely
to win re-election, and voter turnout and campaign spending fell.
An analysis of the evolution of mass media in the United States and European Union
since World War II noted mixed results from the growth of the Internet:
"The digital revolution has been good for freedom of expression [and]
information [but] has had mixed effects on freedom of the press": It
has disrupted traditional sources of funding, and new forms of Internet
journalism have replaced only a tiny fraction of what's been lost. Media responses to whistleblower incidents or reports, and to matters
which generate skepticism in established law and government but may not
technically be whistleblower incidents, are limited by the prevalence of
political correctness and speech codes in many Western nations. In China and many other East Asian countries the state-enforced speech codes limit or, in their view, channel the efforts of the media and civil society to reduce public corruption.
Size of public sector
Extensive
and diverse public spending is, in itself, inherently at risk of
cronyism, kickbacks, and embezzlement. Complicated regulations and
arbitrary, unsupervised official conduct exacerbate the problem. This is
one argument for privatization and deregulation.
Opponents of privatization see the argument as ideological. The
argument that corruption necessarily follows from the opportunity is
weakened by the existence of countries with low to non-existent
corruption but large public sectors, like the Nordic countries. These countries score high on the Ease of Doing Business Index, due to good and often simple regulations and have rule of law
firmly established. Therefore, due to their lack of corruption in the
first place, they can run large public sectors without inducing
political corruption. Recent evidence that takes both the size of
expenditures and regulatory complexity into account has found that
high-income democracies with more expansive state sectors do indeed have
higher levels of corruption.
Like other governmental economic activities, privatization, such
as in the sale of government-owned property, is particularly at the risk
of cronyism. Privatizations in Russia, Latin America, and East Germany
were accompanied by large-scale corruption during the sale of the
state-owned companies. Those with political connections unfairly gained
large wealth, which has discredited privatization in these regions.
While media have reported widely the grand corruption that accompanied
the sales, studies have argued that in addition to increased operating
efficiency, daily petty corruption is, or would be, larger without
privatization and that corruption is more prevalent in non-privatized
sectors. Furthermore, there is evidence to suggest that extralegal and
unofficial activities are more prevalent in countries that privatized
less. In the European Union, the principle of subsidiarity is applied: a
government service should be provided by the lowest, most local
authority that can competently provide it. An effect is that
distribution of funds in multiple instances discourages embezzlement
because even small sums missing will be noticed. In contrast, in a
centralized authority, even minute proportions of public funds can be
large sums of money.
Conditions unfavorable for corruption
Wealth
and power can have a compounding effect on political corruption,
however, the immunity from the law that money and influence bring will
not come into effect when a powerful individual injures or harms another
powerful individual. An example of this immunity being broken is Bernie Madoff,
who while being rich and powerful himself, stole from other rich and
powerful individuals. This resulted in his eventual arrest despite his
status. Level of political competitiveness can affect the degree of political corruption. Increasing salaries can decrease political corruption in lower income countries, while another study found an increase of political corruption with larger salaries of politicians relative to the average wage. Lower political corruption was found for incumbent politicians seeking re-election.
Governmental corruption
Ferdinand Marcos (pictured with his daughter Imee) was a Philippine dictator and kleptocrat. His regime was infamous for its corruption.Russia handing over the symbolic relay baton for the hosting rights of the 2022 FIFA World Cup to Qatar in June 2018
If the highest echelons of the governments take advantage of
corruption or embezzlement from the state's treasury, it is sometimes
referred to the neologism kleptocracy. Members of the government can take advantage of the natural resources
(e.g., diamonds and oil in a few prominent cases) or state-owned
productive industries. A number of corrupt governments have enriched
themselves via foreign aid. Indeed, there is a positive correlation
between aid flows and high levels of corruption within recipient
countries.
US Military Police officer restraining and sedating prisoner while a soldier holds him down
Corruption in Sub-Saharan Africa consists primarily of extracting economic rent and moving the resulting financial capital overseas instead of investing at home. Authors Leonce Ndikumana and James K. Boyce estimate that from 1970 to 2008, capital flight from 33 sub-Saharan countries totalled $700 billion. A corrupt dictatorship typically results in many years of general hardship and suffering for the vast majority of citizens as civil society and the rule of law disintegrate. In addition, corrupt dictators routinely ignore economic and social
problems in their quest to amass ever more wealth and power. The
classic case of a corrupt, exploitive dictator often given is the regime
of Marshal Mobutu Sese Seko, who ruled the Democratic Republic of the Congo (which he renamed Zaire) from 1965 to 1997. It is said that usage of the term kleptocracy gained popularity largely in response to a need to accurately describe Mobutu's regime. Another classic case is Nigeria, especially under the rule of General Sani Abacha who was de facto president of Nigeria from 1993 until his death in 1998. He is reputed to have stolen some US$3 billion–4 billion. He and his relatives are often mentioned in Nigerian 419
letter scams claiming to offer vast fortunes for "help" in laundering
his stolen "fortunes", which in reality turn out not to exist. More than $400 billion was stolen from the treasury by Nigeria's leaders between 1960 and 1999.
Judiciary corruption
There
are two methods of corruption of the judiciary: the state (through
budget planning and various privileges), and the private. Budget of the judiciary in many transitional and developing countries
is almost completely controlled by the executive. The latter undermines
the separation of powers, as it creates a critical financial dependence
of the judiciary. The proper national wealth distribution including the
government spending on the judiciary is subject of the constitutional economics. Judicial corruption can be difficult to completely eradicate, even in developed countries.
Mobile telecommunications and radio broadcasting help to fight corruption, especially in developing regions like Africa, where other forms of communications are limited. In India, the anti-corruption bureau fights against corruption, and a new ombudsman bill called Jan Lokpal Bill is being prepared. In the 1990s, initiatives were taken at an international level (in particular by the European Community, the Council of Europe, the OECD) to put a ban on corruption: in 1996, the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, for instance, adopted a comprehensive Programme of Action against
Corruption and, subsequently, issued a series of anti-corruption
standard-setting instruments:
the Criminal Law Convention on Corruption (ETS 173);
the Civil Law Convention on Corruption (ETS 174);
the Additional Protocol to the Criminal Law Convention on Corruption (ETS 191);
the Twenty Guiding Principles for the Fight against Corruption (Resolution (97) 24);
the Recommendation on Codes of Conduct for Public Officials (Recommendation No. R (2000) 10);
the Recommendation on Common Rules against Corruption in the Funding of Political Parties and Electoral Campaigns (Rec(2003)4)
The purpose of these instruments was to address the various forms of
corruption (involving the public sector, the private sector, the
financing of political activities, etc.) whether they had a strictly
domestic or also a transnational dimension. To monitor the
implementation at national level of the requirements and principles
provided in those texts, a monitoring mechanism – the Group of States Against Corruption
(also known as GRECO) (French: Groupe d'Etats contre la corruption) was
created. Further conventions were adopted at the regional level under
the aegis of the Organization of American States (OAS or OEA), the African Union, and in 2003, at the universal level under that of the United Nations Convention against Corruption
where it is enabled with mutual legal assistance between the states
parties regarding investigations, processes and judicial actions related
to corruption crimes, as established in article 46.
Protesters in support of American whistleblower Edward Snowden, Berlin, Germany, 30 August 2014
A whistleblower (also written as whistle-blower or whistle blower) is
a person who exposes any kind of information or activity that is deemed
illegal, unethical, or not correct within an organization that is
either private or public.
Measuring corruption
Measuring
corruption accurately is difficult if not impossible due to the illicit
nature of the transaction and imprecise definitions of corruption. Few reliable measures of the magnitude of corruption exists and among
those, there is a high level of heterogeneity. One of the most common
ways to estimate corruption is through perception surveys. They have the
advantage of good coverage, however, they do not measure corruption
precisely. While "corruption" indices first appeared in 1995 with the Corruption Perceptions Index CPI, all of these metrics address different proxies for corruption, such as public perceptions of the extent of the problem. However, over time the refinement of methods and validation checks
against objective indicators has meant that, while not perfect, many of
these indicators are getting better at consistently and validly
measuring the scale of corruption.
Transparency International, an anti-corruption NGO,
pioneered this field with the CPI, first released in 1995. This work is
often credited with breaking a taboo and forcing the issue of
corruption into high-level development policy discourse. Transparency
International currently publishes three measures, updated annually: a
CPI (based on aggregating third-party polling of public perceptions of
how corrupt different countries are); a Global Corruption Barometer
(based on a survey of general public attitudes toward and experience of
corruption); and a Bribe Payers Index,
looking at the willingness of foreign firms to pay bribes. The
Corruption Perceptions Index is the best known of these metrics, though
it has drawn much criticismand may be declining in influence. In 2013 Transparency International
published a report on the "Government Defence Anti-corruption Index".
This index evaluates the risk of corruption in countries' military
sector.
The World Bank collects a range of data on corruption, including survey responses from over 100,000 firms worldwide and a set of indicators of governance and institutional quality. Moreover, one of the six dimensions of governance measured by the Worldwide Governance Indicators
is Control of Corruption, which is defined as "the extent to which
power is exercised for private gain, including both petty and grand
forms of corruption, as well as 'capture' of the state by elites and private interests." While the definition itself is fairly precise, the data aggregated into
the Worldwide Governance Indicators is based on any available polling:
questions range from "is corruption a serious problem?" to measures of
public access to information, and not consistent across countries.
Despite these weaknesses, the global coverage of these datasets has led
to their widespread adoption, most notably by the Millennium Challenge Corporation.
A number of parties have collected survey data, from the public
and from experts, to try to gauge the level of corruption and bribery,
as well as its impact on political and economic outcomes. A second wave of corruption metrics has been created by Global Integrity, the International Budget Partnership, and many lesser known local groups. These metrics include the Global Integrity Index, first published in 2004. These second wave projects aim to create
policy change by identifying resources more effectively and creating
checklists toward incremental reform. Global Integrity and the
International Budget Partnership each dispense with public surveys and instead uses in-country experts
to evaluate "the opposite of corruption" – which Global Integrity
defines as the public policies that prevent, discourage, or expose
corruption. These approaches complement the first wave, awareness-raising tools by
giving governments facing public outcry a checklist which measures
concrete steps toward improved governance.
Typical second wave corruption metrics do not offer the worldwide
coverage found in first wave projects and instead focus on localizing
information gathered to specific problems and creating deep,
"unpackable" content that matches quantitative and qualitative data. Alternative
approaches, such as the British aid agency's Drivers of Change research,
skips numbers and promotes understanding corruption via political
economy analysis of who controls power in a given society. Another approach, suggested for when conventional measures of
corruption are unavailable, is to look at the bodyfat of officials,
after finding that obesity of cabinet ministers in post-Soviet states was highly correlated with more accurate measures.
FreedomGuard, Ltd.,
a United States public benefit authority empowered to identify,
investigate, and civilly prosecute federal & state government
corruption
Global Witness,
an international NGO established in 1993 that works to break the links
between natural resource exploitation, conflict, poverty, corruption,
and human rights abuses worldwide
Group of States Against Corruption,
a body established under the Council of Europe to monitor the
implementation of instruments adopted by member states to combat
political corruption
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