Cronyism in the Public Sector: How It Drives Failure

Patronage appointments' effects on public policy continue to be a debated topic among public management scholars, with no unified position on whether appointees or careerist bureaucrats have the best impact on public management. This essay explores what are these competing views on the effects of patronage appointments on the public sector. The first part outlines positive effects stressed by scholars which argue the need of increased political responsiveness. The second part refers to the drawbacks of patronage appointments that result in costly and less efficient policies. Drawing on the readings, I group these adverse effects into four categories that offer a clearer picture explaining the relationship between patronage appointments and public policy.

2020

The direct election of the leaders of executiveand legislative institutions in Indonesia has provided a paradoxical reality in efforts to improve the quality of democracy in Indonesia. On the one hand, it emerges the strong legitimacy of democracy while on the other hand, it appears nepotism as a new style of candidate strategy to win the fight. Several regencies in South Sumatra Province have shown this symptom.It seems that some regional leaders have blood relations and inter-party kinship. This occurs as a strategy to control the opinion of bureaucrats, politicians, and the community through control of access to positions and control of regional economic resources so that electability resources can be controlled through controlling the power knots of the community.The community becomes marginalized in determining their chosen leaders and representatives. The facts show that the level of community political participation is decreasing along with the shifting of bureaucratic loyalt...

2017

The article brings up to date the issue of corruption in the system of public management in European states. A set of measures to improve anti-corruption activities at the current stage of development of the world community is provided on the basis of the efficiency analysis regarding the current corruption preventive policy. The issue of corruption is among the global challenges of the day, addressing which will affect the way of development of the world community in the new century. One can see socially destructive consequences of corruption in all aspects of public life. Today, the issues of corruption are of special concern in respect of public authorities. The issue of corruption with multiple forms, such as lobbying, bribery, veiled thefts and abuses, is a social disease that is being globally integrated into the world community. However, the issue is of equal concern for developed countries as well as for the countries with the lower levels of economic development. “Transparency International” International non-governmental organization publishes annual ratings of countries regarding the level of perception of corruption. In 2016, for example, the average figure for 176 countries of the world was 43 points out of 100. In 2016, Denmark and New Zealand recorded the lowest level of corruption. These countries scored 90 points. Finland, Sweden and Switzerland were also found in the first five. The highest level of corruption was recorded in Somalia, South Sudan, North Korea, Syria and Yemen, - these countries scored less than 20 points. The rating illustrates interdependence between corruption and inequality in the distribution of power and national income in society. Corruption is a system of social relations that destruct society. However, there is no consensus on the reasons for corruption. To some extent, it is related to the intersectoral nature of the phenomenon, which is being studied by scientists from different branches of science at the same time (lawyers, managers, economists, sociologists, political scientists, etc.). The "multidimensional picture" of the causes of corruption, received as the result of the analysis will provide an opportunity to significantly modernize the anti-corruption policy. The analysis of public management, using the "principal-agency relationships" model shows explicitly that the main reason for the phenomenon of corruption in public administration is a conflict of interests between the managed society and its public officers. This conflict of interests can be balanced through moral education of public servants, nurturing moral principles and values of the professional culture of officials in the new trends of public administration development. The problem of an integrated approach to the analysis of this social phenomenon appears to be the only option for a truly effective policy for preventing corruption at all levels of public service. keywords: corruption, anti-corruption expertise, public administration, corruption preventing policy.

Scandinavian Political Studies, 2009

Much of the literature on political corruption is based on indices such as the ones presented by Transparency International, but the reliability and validity of these indices are questionable. The main alternative approach -qualitative case studies -often lacks a theoretical framework allowing for systematic empirical analysis. To remedy this shortcoming, this article places qualitative case studies into the framework of principal-agent theory. The cases comprise two Swedish county councils (regional governments), both of which reorganised their administrations in similar ways in the 1990s. One experienced corruption scandals, but the other did not. In comparing them, the article links the propensity for corruption to institutional design -in particular, the mechanisms of delegation and control.

Problems and Perspectives in Management, 2022

In modern business, “nepotism” and “cronyism” are often observed, usually associated with corruption in the public sector and abuse of public resources. However, these phenomena are international in scale, and no country or sector of the economy is free from them. Existing research does not identify shared and contradictory interests of individuals based on nepotism or cronyism. This study aims to fill this research gap. A research hypothesis was developed and tested to determine a point from which nepotism and cronyism are not beneficial to their perpetrators. The research data included Poles and Albanians. This study identified some thought-provoking issues that will help better understand nepotism/cronyism. Based on this study and the literature review, the following mechanisms of nepotism/cronyism can be identified: 1) the mechanism of closeness and, consequently, the tendency to help relatives; 2) the mechanism of reciprocity, which assumes that someone who helps can reciprocate and help in the future. Nepotism/cronyism is associated with negative social capital. This study confirms the argument that the unfavourable option of social capital is manifested in preserving benefits for some individuals and relatives. In such circumstances, “interest groups” are deliberately created and maintained to obtain illegal privileges. The affirmation of nepotism/cronyism simply because it benefits their participants, leads to ethical collapse, leads to social inequality, and gives the same generalization. Characteristic features of low social capital are the expressed distrust of others by the respondents and the “culture of silence,” which can even lead to the spread of crime. This study shows that Hamilton’s relative altruism may explain the phenomena of nepotism/cronyism. Reducing uncertainty due to nepotism/cronyism experienced by attackers is seen as a benefit. In addition, this study shows the limits of common and conflicting interests of individuals based on nepotism/nepotism. The extent of nepotism/cronyism practice depends on the common interests of the beneficiaries of such practice. The Pareto set allows one to define a set of propositions of nepotism and cronyism. The study has shown that the standard part of the Pareto set and the possible discussion area between people who use nepotism/cronyism to help others find a job, a better job or salary, and those who support nepotism/cronyism are areas of common bargaining. Negotiations on the form of change (hiring additional, new “supported people”) will be conducted in this area, defined as – nepotism and cronyism. This study contributes to a better contextual diagnosis of the reliability of organizations.

3 r d International Congress on Political, Economi c and Social Studies (ICPESS), 0 9 - 11 Nov. 2017

This study aims to reveal the bases of corruption, which have huge effects in current public administration systems, and display extent of certain organizations' efforts in the combat against corruption. It also aims to discuss what can be done in the current public administration system and contribute to the public administration discipline. The article presents an overview of the phenomenon of corruption in public sector including its causes; the challenges involved in combating corruption, and the implications of these challenges for service delivery. It concludes by making some recommendations on how to resolve the scourge of corruption.

“Dimitrie Cantemir” Christian University Knowledge Horizons - Economics, 2017

Nepotism usually means hiring relatives, close friends, regardless of their merits and abilities. While corruption is a permanent risk to the economic system, but also for the country's legal system. The purpose of this paper is; to evaluate the factors affecting the appearance and development of nepotism and corruption. Then, analyze the impact of nepotism and corruption in the country's economy. The impact of nepotism in the hiring and advancement of relatives in important sectors of the country and the impact of corruption and nepotism in the judicial institutions. Results of the survey will be useful to researchers who will deal with the analysis of factors influencing nepotism and corruption.

Corruption has been identified by the World Bank as the number one obstacle to the development of countries. Politicians also contribute a lot to this phenomenon (corruption). Older research or documents (until 2005) did not actually distinguish between political and administrative corruption. There have been attempts to define political corruption, but researchers have defined it too broadly and in defining it have used forms of corruption that are more or less broadly present in one way or another. Even later research did not differ much from these and one rarely comes across articles that would treat political corruption as a stand-alone corruption. Yet, they treat it as corruption at the highest state levels. Political corruption operates on two or three levels (depending on each country's local self-government). The first, highest level is at the state level, where the bearers of political corruption are the government and politically appopinted or elected state officials. The second and third level are a step or two lower (depending on the system of government), at the level of regions, provinces or municipalities. These bearers of political corruption are also politically appointed or elected officials and holders of power at a lower level, such as. mayors, municipal or provincial councillors. Thus, the purpose of this article is to try to define exactly what political corruption is, what it involves, where it happens and how it passes from the field of legal (unpunishable but not legitimate) political corruption to the illegal (criminal) field of political corruption.

Encyclopedia of Early Modern History Online

Politicians can use the public sector to give jobs to cronies, at the expense of the efficiency of those organisations and general welfare. Motivated by a simple model of cronyism that predicts spikes in appointments to state-owned firms near elections, we regress 1980-2008 monthly hirings across all state-owned Portuguese firms on the country's political cycle. In most specifications, we also consider private-sector firms as a control group. Consistent with the model, we find that public-sector appointments increase significantly over the months just before a new government takes office. Hirings also increase considerably just after elections but only if the new government is of a different political colour than its predecessor. These results also hold when conducting the analysis separately at different industries and most job levels, including less skilled positions. We find our evidence to be consistent with cronyism and politically-induced misallocation of public resources.

Without Abstract Synonyms Cronyism; Favoritism; Traffic of influence

It is a common convention for papers about corruption to start with a historical reference that emphasizes the longevity and resilience of corruption. Rather than refer to the wisdom of the ancient world or the words of a great statesman I will observe that convention by noting the historical context of this Expert Group Meeting on preventing corruption in the public administration. The purpose of the meeting is to facilitate progress in corruption prevention, particularly in relation to institutional methods and practice, and to recommend the continuation or consideration of specific strategies for doing so. It is part of a process that isoften said to have begun with the so-called " cancer of corruption " speech by World Bank President James Wolfensohn in 1996. By acknowledging the ubiquity of corruption, the lasting damage it can cause and the responsibility of powerful institutions to take action, that speech represented a turning point in the attitude of key international actors and licensed a systematic international effort against corruption that this meeting is part of. Since then corruption has been studied, classified, measured, defined and proscribed by policy makers and practitioners, theorists and researchers mostly in the disciplines of political science, economics, philosophy, public administration and law enforcement. In an effort to come to grips with the nature of corruption much of the early anti-corruption activity produced research data, multilateral agreements, model laws, frameworks and strategies for prevention ultimately producing the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention and the United Nations Convention Against Corruption. The Anti-Bribery Convention represented a change in approach by introducing the potential for very wide application, engaging locally enforceable policy levers and international obligations, and enabling monitoring of enforcement. The United Nations Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC) has applied the same attributes to a wider focus. Explicitly incorporating the implementation of prevention policy and mechanisms has encouraged wave of activity focused on the challenge of reducing or preventing the incidence of corruption particularly in the public sector environment. With that activity have come insights from a wider range of disciplines to contribute to our understanding of corruption. Social psychology, organizational theory, social theory, business ethics, criminology and behavioural economics, among others, all have something to offer the corruption prevention endeavour.

1999

Nepotism usually means hiring relatives, close friends, regardless of their merits and abilities. This would be a simple definition of nepotism, which as we all know, the rapidity became the "criterion" and favorable for employment leading people by family ties. While corruption is a permanent risk to the economic system, but also for the country's legal system. The purpose of this paper is; be analyzed nepotism, analyze the effects of nepotism, and analyzed the impact of corruption the country 's own economy.