Determinants of Corruption in Developing Countries

Corruption is a limp in the walk of human progress. It is not a new phenomenon; it is as old as the history of mankind itself. The corruption made itself visible when the institution of the government was established. According to Glynn, et al. (1997), “.....no region, and hardly any country, has been immune from corruption”. Like a cancer, it strikes almost all parts of the society and destroys the functioning of vital organs, means cultural, political and economic structure of society Amundsen (1999). All this was proved by the major corruption scandals of France, Italy, Japan, Philippine, South Korea, Mexico, United States etc. These scandals bring the corruption problem on the agenda of major international institutions like International Monetary Fund, World Bank, World Trade Organisation, Transparency International and Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. According to the World Bank corruption is “the single greatest obstacle to economic and social development. It undermines development by distorting the role of law and weakening the institutional foundation on which economic growth depends.” The Transparency International takes it as, “... one of the greatest challenges of the contemporary world. It undermines good government, fundamentally distorts public policy, leads to the mis-allocation of resources, harms the private sector and private sector development and particularly hurts the poor.” During the 20th century, corruption gained substantial attention in academic research and became a meeting place for researchers belonging to various disciplines of the social sciences and history. The researcher group belonging to political science has focused the small number of themes that include; how a political system addresses the