Korruptio poliittisten ja taloudellisten instituutioiden vallankäyttönä

Authors

• Paavo Isaksson

Abstract

Discussion concerning corruption in Finland is restricted by the definition of corruption as the committing of individual acts that are contrary to existing law. However, corruption has to be looked at as an improper structural element in the social process characterized by private interest. Corruption aims to influence decision-making for the benefit of particular interests. Corruption is a deviant influencing strategy in the exercise of power because it depends on secrecy and inequality, thus undermining public trust in political and business institutions. At the same time as interaction between business organizations and political institutions has increased, the possibility and probability of corruption has grown. An evaluation of political corruption needs a definition of corruptive characteristics. Corruptive practices are often present in lobbying and in conflicts of professional interests in official duties, in legal graft, state-bribery, in the patronage system and in the financing of political campaigns. Corruptive tendencies in Finnish politics are based on networking, debts of gratitude and shared values and only secondarily on direct influence.