Date of Award

1-1-2016

Language

English

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

College/School/Department

Department of Political Science

Content Description

1 online resource (iv, 319 pages)

Dissertation/Thesis Chair

Cheng Chen

Committee Members

Sally Friedman, Gregory Nowell, Mark Baskin

Keywords

Archetypes, Local, Global, Symbolism, Content, Passive, Active, Azerbaijan, Estonia, Russia, Corruption, bribe offers, bribe demand, Grassroots activism, social responsibility, Post-Soviet politics, political culture, Traditionalism, modernization, Bribery

Subject Categories

Political Science

Abstract

This work analyzes relatively neglected side of corruption ‒ population bribe offers (as opposed to bureaucrats' bribe demand). The regional focus of the work is on the post-Soviet space, with Azerbaijan, Estonia and Russia as case studies. Drawing on all relevant theories and variables of corruption research, the manuscript emphasizes the importance of ideational factors of corruption in addition to material variables. To analyze ideational factors, the research introduces methodological innovation ‒ the concept of archetypal Modalities. The main argument of the work is that traditionalist value orientations (Local, Symbol and Passive modalities) are statistically significant in predicting the incidence of population bribe offers. Bribe offers account for approximately half of the variation in the incidence of population-initiated corruption. Therefore, in order to fight corruption effectively, policy-makers should not focus exclusively on “bribe demands”, but pay attention to “bribe offers” too. Methodologically, the concept of modalities provides effective tool for the systematization of variables, drawn from theories of corruption.

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