Sociocultural Aspects of Corrupt Behavior. The Experience of China

Sociocultural Aspects of Corrupt Behavior. The Experience of China

Authors

Keywords:

Corruption, guanxi, “white corruption”, developing countries, China

Abstract

The processes of economic liberalization and democratization have presented emerging nations with a wide range of
complicated issues, the resolution of which proved to be extremely challenging due to the specifics of their socio-cultural context.
One of these issues is corruption, whose great prevalence hampers the establishment and consolidation of a modern system of
public administration in these countries. It has been demonstrated through experience that corruption perception in developed
countries affect acceptable behavior patterns in developing countries, making it difficult to detect corruption and create effective
anti-corruption measures. The article examines how sociocultural factors influence the perception of corruption with the example
of the experience of modern China. In particular, various types of guanxi relations, which have been the basis of social interaction
in China for many centuries, are being explored. But since the beginning of economic reform and the reorganization of the legal
system, they have become ambiguous, since their content has much in common with the Western understanding of corrupt behavior,
shared throughout the world, including in China. The authors come to the conclusion that it is extremely difficult to legally limit
guanxi, since they are part of the cultural environment, and this allows us to attribute guanxi to “white corruption”. At the same
time, situations in which guanxi relations are used as a cover for corrupt deals must be stopped. This requires not so much tough
administrative measures but strengthening the value in the minds of citizens and civil servants of an orientation towards achieving
national, non-group or individual interests.

Author Biographies

Olga V. Mikhaylova, Lomonosov Moscow State University

DSc (Political Sciences), Associate Professor, School of Public Administration, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow,
Russian Federation.

Shao Zixuan, Lomonosov Moscow State University

Postgraduate student, Higher School of Cultural Policy and Management in the Humanitarian Sphere (Faculty), Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow, Russian Federation.

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Published

2023-10-30

How to Cite

Sociocultural Aspects of Corrupt Behavior. The Experience of China. (2023). Public Administration. E-Journal (Russia), 98, 178-190. https://spajournal.ru/index.php/spa/article/view/36

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How to Cite

Sociocultural Aspects of Corrupt Behavior. The Experience of China. (2023). Public Administration. E-Journal (Russia), 98, 178-190. https://spajournal.ru/index.php/spa/article/view/36

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