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[edit] Function
The purpose of the state secrets privilege is to prevent courts from revealing state secrets in the course of civil litigation (in criminal cases, the Classified Information Procedures Act serves the same purpose). The government may intervene in any civil suit, including when it is not a party to the litigation, to ask the court to exclude state secrets evidence. While the courts may examine such evidence closely, in practice they generally defer to the Executive Branch. Once the court has agreed that evidence is subject to the state secrets privilege, it is excluded from the litigation. Often, as a practical matter, the plaintiff cannot continue the suit without the privileged information, and drops the case. Recently, courts have been more inclined to dismiss cases outright, if the subject matter of the case is a state secret.
[edit] History
[edit] Origins
The doctrine was effectively imported from British law which has a similar privilege.[1][2] It is debatable whether the state secrets privilege is based upon the President's powers as commander-in-chief and leader of foreign affairs (as suggested in United States v. Nixon) or derived from the idea of separation of powers (as suggested in United States v. Reynolds)[1] It seems that the US privilege "has its initial roots in Aaron Burr's trial for treason." In this case, it was alleged that a letter
from General James Wilkinson to President Thomas Jefferson might contain state secrets and could therefore not be divulged without risk to national security.[1]
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An article in the NYT, in August 2007, on a lawsuit involving Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication concludes that it would seem that the unprecedented frequency with which the Bush administration invoked and invokes this principle has made judges more skeptical and willing to ask the government to validate its claims. In the words of Tom Blanton, director of the National Security Archive at George Washington University "What seems clear is that until a year or two ago, the judges rarely even questioned it when the government raised the 'state secrets' claim. It was a neutron bomb no plaintiffs left standing. But we're now seeing that judges are starting to actually look behind the government's secrecy claims and see what's really there." [14]
[edit] Criticism
Since 2001, there has been mounting criticism of the state secrets privilege. Such criticism generally falls into four categories:
1. Requiring judges to review each piece of evidence that the executive claims is subject to the privilege.[20][23][24] 2. Requiring the executive to craft alternative evidence that is not subject to the privilege, for the opposing party to use in place of the original, privileged evidence.[23] Such substitute evidence should only be required when it is possible to do so without harming national security. 3. Prohibiting courts from dismissing claims on the basis of the state secrets privilege until after they have reviewed all available evidence. 4. Permitting the court to appoint an outside expert to scrutinize the evidence for national security content.[21] 5. Excluding illegal government action from the definition of "state secrets," or otherwise allowing the court to address the legality (instead of just the secrecy) of government conduct. This would prevent the government from using the state secrets privilege to conceal its illegal conduct.[21]
On January 22, 2008, Senators Edward Kennedy and Arlen Specter introduced S. 2533, the State Secrets Protection Act.[25]
[edit] Richard Horn Main articles: Richard Horn and Horn v. Albright
Former DEA agent Richard Horn brought a suit against the CIA for bugging his home. The case was dismissed because of the privilege.[1][6] Richard Horn's case was reinstated on July 20, 2009 by USDC Judge Royce C. Lambreth on the basis that the CIA had engaged in fraud on the court. On 30 March 2010, as a result of a multi-million dollar settlement agreement between Horn and the government, Lamberth dismissed the underlying case with prejudice. Subsequently, later that same year, in a 22 September order,
Lamberth issued a final order vacating his earlier opinions and orders finding that CIA lawyers, Tenet, and Brown had committed fraud on the court. Lamberth also specifically ordered that a sentence be removed from his 30 March 2010 Memorandum. The removed sentence had stated that "allegations of wrongdoing by the government attorneys in this case are not only credible, they are admitted."
brought by the ACLU against the NSA on behalf of various scholars, journalists, attorneys, and national non-profit organizations, Judge Anna Diggs Taylor ruled on August 17, 2006, that the program was unconstitutional and should be halted. She upheld the doctrine, but ruled that the government's public statements concerning the operation were admissible and constituted sufficient proof for the case to continue without any privileged evidence or discovery. On July 6, 2007, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals threw out Taylor's decision, ruling 2-1 that the ACLU could not produce evidence to prove that the ACLU had been wrongfully wiretapped by the NSA, and therefore did not have the standing to bring such a case to court, regardless of the legality question. On February 19, 2008, the Supreme Court declined to hear the ACLU's appeal. See ACLU v. NSA.
In May 2006, the illegal detention case of Khalid El-Masri was dismissed based on the privilege, which was invoked by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Khalid El-Masri alleged that he was falsely held by the CIA for several months (which the CIA acknowledges) and was beaten, drugged, and subjected to various other inhumane activity while in captivity. He was ultimately released by the CIA with no charge ever being brought against him by the United States government. Judge T.S. Ellis, III of the U.S. District Court dismissed the case because, according to the court, the simple fact of holding proceedings would jeopardize state secrets, as claimed by the CIA. [3] [2]. On March 2, 2007, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit affirmed. [3] On October 9, 2007, the Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal of the Fourth Circuit's decision, letting the doctrine of state secrets privilege stand. [29]
Main articles: Maher Arar and Extraordinary rendition The privilege was invoked against a case where Maher Arar, a wrongfully-accused and tortured victim, sought to sue Attorney General John Ashcroft for his role in deporting Arar to Syria to face torture and extract false confessions. It was formally invoked by Deputy Attorney General James B. Comey in legal papers filed in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York. The invocation read, "Litigating [the] plaintiff's complaint would necessitate disclosure of classified information", which it later stated included disclosure of the basis for detaining him in the first place, the basis for refusing to deport him to Canada as he had requested, and the basis for sending him to Syria.
[edit] Quotes
"Because it is so powerful and can trample legitimate claims against the government, the state secrets privilege is not to be lightly invoked" (United States v. Reynolds, 345 U.S. 1, 7 (1953)) [5] "The state secrets privilege is a common law evidentiary rule that allows the government to withhold information from discovery when disclosure would be inimical to national security." Zuckerbraun v. General Dynamics Corp., 935 F.2d 544, 546 (2d Cir. 1991).
[edit] References
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^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o The state secrets privilege: Expanding Its Scope Through Government Misuse by Carrie Newton Lyons, the Lewis & Clark Law Review, published by Lewis & Clark Law School, Volume 11 / Number 1 / Spring 2007. ^ a b c d e f g The State Secrets Privilege and executive Misconduct by Shayana Kadidal, one of the lead attorneys on the Center for Constitutional Rights, JURIST, May 30, 2006 ^ a b c d e f Dangerous Discretion: State Secrets and the El-Masri Rendition Case by Aziz Huq, Director of the Liberty and National Security Project at the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law, JURIST, March 12, 2007 ^ a b c The Suit Challenging the NSA's Warrantless Wiretapping Can Proceed, Despite the State Secrets Privilege The Suit Challenging the NSA's Warrantless Wiretapping Can Proceed, Despite the State Secrets Privilege: Why The Judge Made the Right Call By JULIE HILDEN, FIndLaw, August 15, 2006 Examining Two Recent Rulings Allowing Suits Against the NSA's Warrantless Wiretapping To Proceed, Despite the State Secrets Privilege: Part Two in a Series By JULIE HILDEN, FindLaw, August 23, 2006 ^ a b c d e f g Building the Secrecy Wall higher and higher by Glenn Greenwald, Unclaimed Territory, April 29, 2006 ^ a b c d e Bush Wielding Secrecy Privilege to End Suits By Andrew Zajac, The Chicago Tribune, March 3, 2005 ^ United States v. Reynolds, 345 U.S. 1, paragraph 8 (1953) (the privilege against revealing military secrets, a privilege which is well established in the law of evidence). Text ^ Tenet v. Doe, 544 U.S. 1 (2005) ^ a b c ACLU v. National Security Agency: Why the "State Secrets Privilege" Shouldn't Stop the Lawsuit Challenging Warrantless Telephone Surveillance of Americans By JOHN W. DEAN, FindLaw, June 16, 2006 ^ a b c d e f Secret GuardingThe new secrecy doctrine so secret you don't even know about it By Henry Lanman, Slate, May 22, 2006, ^ Stephens, Hampton. Supreme Court Filing claims Air Force, government fraud in 1953 case: Case could affect 'state secrets' privilege Inside the Air Force March 14, 2003. Retrieved May 3, 2007. ^ a b Rechecking the Balance of Powers The Bush administration has finally been rebuked for its repeated efforts to evade judicial review By Glenn Greenwald, In These Times, July 21, 2006 ^ a b c [1] By Susan Burgess, The News Media and the Law, Fall 2005 ^ Lichtblau, Eric (August 31, 2007). "U.S. Cites Secrets Privilege as It Tries to Stop Suit on Banking Records". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/31/us/nationalspecial3/31swift.html?ref=us. Retrieved 2009-07-09. ^ Congress and Judges Gagged Arlen Specter and a CIA torture victim know Only the Oval Office decides what the law is by Nat Hentoff, Village Voice, June 19th, 2006 ^ a b Closing Our Courts Crying 'state secrets,' the administration seals the courts to avoid scrutiny by Nat Hentoff, Village Voice, June 9th, 2006 ^ House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act of 2007 Testimony of William G. Weaver, J.D., Ph.D. Senior Advisor, National Security Whistleblowers Coalition and Associate Professor University of Texas at El Paso, Inst. for Policy and Econ. Development and Dept. of Political Science, February 13, 2007 ^ Secrecy and Foreign Policy by Robert Pallitto, Foreign Policy In Focus (FPIF), December 8, 2006 ^ Snapshots of the U.S. under the Bush administration by Glenn Greenwald, Unclaimed Territory, May 23, 2006 ^ a b Florence, Justin and Gerke, Matthew: "State Your Secrets: The smart way around telecom immunity." http://www.slate.com/id/2177962/ ^ a b c "State Secrets and the Limits of National Security Legislation" by Robert Chesney. George Washington Law Review (2007). ^ "The State Secrets Privilege: Expanding Its Scope Through Government Misuse" by Carrie Newton Lyons, 11 Lewis & Clark L. Rev. 99 (2007). ^ a b Report on Reforming the State Secrets Privilege, American Bar Association, 2007. ^ "State Your Secrets" by Lou Fisher. Legal Times, 2006. ^ "Introduction of the State Secrets Protection Act". Federation of American Scientists. 2008-01-22. http://www.fas.org/irp/congress/2008_cr/statesec.html. Retrieved 2008-02-08.
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^ "Statement of Kevin S. Bankston, Senior Staff Attorney Electronic Frontier Foundation" (PDF). Oversight Hearing on Reform of the State Secrets Privilege by the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties. 2008-01-29. http://www.eff.org/files/EFF_HJC_SSP_written_testimony_Final.pdf. Retrieved 2008-02-08. 27. ^ Hepting v. AT&T, U.S. District Court (U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California 3 June 2009). Text 28. ^ Bazan, Elizabeth B. (7 July 2008). "The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act: An Overview of Selected Issues" (PDF). Congressional Research Service. http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/intel/RL34279.pdf. '+. ^ Greenhouse, Linda (2007-10-10). "Supreme Court Refuses to Hear Torture Appeal". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/10/washington/10scotus.html?ref=us. Retrieved 2007-10-10. Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_secrets_privilege" Categories: United States government secrecy | Evidence law | George W. Bush administration controversies | Executive branch of the United States government | Classified information This page was last modified on 20 May 2011 at 06:09. Political Corruption Political corruption is the use of legislated powers by government officials for illegitimate private gain. Misuse of government power for other purposes, such as repression of political opponents and general police brutality, is not considered political corruption. Neither are illegal acts by private persons or corporations not directly involved with the government. An illegal act by an officeholder constitutes political corruption only if the act is directly related to their official duties. Forms of corruption vary, but include bribery, extortion, cronyism, nepotism, patronage, graft, and embezzlement. While corruption may facilitate criminal enterprise such as drug trafficking, money laundering, and human trafficking, it is not restricted to these activities. The activities that constitute illegal corruption differ depending on the country or jurisdiction. For instance, certain political funding practices that are legal in one place may be illegal in another. In some cases, government officials have broad or poorly defined powers, which make it difficult to distinguish between legal and illegal actions. Worldwide, bribery alone is estimated to involve over 1 trillion US dollars annually.[1] A state of unrestrained political corruption is known as a kleptocracy, literally meaning "rule by thieves". Political corruption
Corruption by country
Angola Armenia Canada Chile China ;P<C= Colombia Cuba 4hana India Iran >enya Ireland :igeria Pa.istan Paraguay Philippines <ussia South Africa ?ene@uela *nited States
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Contents
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, 9ffects o ,., 9ffects on politics8 administration8 and institutions o ,.' 9conomic effects o ,.3 9nvironmental and social effects o ,.0 9ffects on umanitarian Aid o ,.1 Cther areas$ health8 public safety8 education8 trade unions8 etc. ' Types o '., !ribery o '.' Trading in influence o '.3 Patronage o '.0 :epotism and cronyism o '.1 9lectoral fraud o './ 9mbe@@lement o '.6 >ic.bac.s o '.( *nholy alliance o '.+ Involvement in organi@ed crime 3 Conditions favorable for corruption o 3., Si@e of public sector 0 4overnmental corruption 1 Fighting corruption / -histleblowers 6 Campaign contributions ( Deasuring corruption + See also ,2 <eferences ,, Further reading ,' 97ternal lin.s
[edit] Effects
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Detail from Corrupt Legislation (1896) by Elihu Vedder. Library of Congress Thomas Jefferson Building, Washington, D.C.
Corruption poses a serious development challenge. In the political realm, it undermines democracy and good governance by flouting or even subverting formal processes. Corruption in elections and in legislative bodies reduces accountability and distorts representation in policymaking; corruption in the judiciary compromises the rule of law; and corruption in public administration results in the inefficient provision of services. It violates a basic principle of republicanism regarding the centrality of civic virtue. More generally, corruption erodes the institutional capacity of government as procedures are disregarded, resources are siphoned off, and public offices are bought and sold. At the same time, corruption undermines the legitimacy of government and such democratic values as trust and tolerance.
Corruption facilitates environmental destruction. Corrupt countries may formally have legislation to protect the environment, it cannot be enforced if officials can easily be bribed. The same applies to social rights worker protection,unionization prevention, and child labor. Violation of these laws rights enables corrupt countries to gain illegitimate economic advantage in the international market. The Nobel Prize-winning economist Amartya Sen has observed that "there is no such thing as an apolitical food problem." While drought and other naturally occurring events may trigger famine conditions, it is government action or inaction that determines its severity, and often even whether or not a famine will occur. Governments with strong tendencies towards kleptocracy can undermine food security even when harvests are good. Officials often steal state property. In Bihar, India, more than 80% of the subsidized food aid to poor is stolen by corrupt officials.[5] Similarly, food aid is often robbed at gunpoint by governments, criminals, and warlords alike, and sold for a profit. The 20th century is full of many examples of governments undermining the food security of their own nations sometimes intentionally.[6]
[edit] Other areas: health, public safety, education, trade unions, etc.
See also: Police corruption Corruption is not specific to poor, developing, or transition countries. In western countries, there have been cases of bribery and other forms of corruption in all possible fields: under-the-table payments made to reputed surgeons by patients willing to be on top of the list of forthcoming surgeries,[8] bribes paid by suppliers to the automotive industry in order to sell poor quality connectors used for instance in safety equipment such as airbags, bribes paid by suppliers to manufacturers of defibrillators (to sell poor quality capacitors), contributions paid by wealthy parents to the "social and culture fund" of a prestigious university in exchange for it to accept their children, bribes paid to obtain diplomas, financial and other advantages granted to unionists by members of the executive board of a car manufacturer in exchange for employer-friendly positions and votes, etc. Examples are endless. These various manifestations of corruption can ultimately present a danger for the public health; they can discredit certain essential institutions or social relationships. Corruption can also affect the various components of sports activities (referees, players, medical and laboratory staff involved in anti-doping controls, members of national sport federation and international committees deciding about the allocation of contracts and competition places). There have also been cases against (members of) various types of non-profit and non-government organisations, as well as religious organisations. Ultimately, the distinction between public and private sector corruption sometimes appears rather artificial and national anticorruption initiatives may need to avoid legal and other loopholes in the coverage of the instruments.
[edit] Types
[edit] Bribery
Main article: Bribery
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A bribe is a payment given personally to a government official in exchange of his use of official powers. Bribery requires two participants: one to give the bribe, and one to take it. Either may initiate the corrupt offering; for example, a customs official may demand bribes to let through allowed (or disallowed) goods, or a smuggler might offer bribes to gain passage. In some countries the culture of corruption extends to every aspect of public life, making it extremely difficult for individuals to stay in business without resorting to bribes. Bribes may be demanded in order for an official to do something he is already paid to do. They may also be demanded in order to bypass laws and regulations. In addition to using bribery for private financial gain, they are also used to intentionally and maliciously cause harm to another (i.e. no financial incentive). In some developing nations, up to half of the population has paid bribes during the past 12 months.[9]
In recent years, efforts have been made by the international community to encourage countries to dissociate and incriminate as separate offences, active and passive bribery. Active bribery can be defined for instance as the promising, offering or giving by any person, directly or indirectly, of any undue advantage [to any public official], for himself or herself or for anyone else, for him or her to act or refrain from acting in the exercise of his or her functions.(article 2 of the Criminal Law Convention on Corruption (ETS 173) of the Council of Europe). Passive bribery can be defined as the request or receipt [by any public official], directly or indirectly, of any undue advantage, for himself or herself or for anyone else, or the acceptance of an offer or a promise of such an advantage, to act or refrain from acting in the exercise of his or her functions (article 3 of the Criminal Law Convention on Corruption (ETS 173)). The reason for this dissociation is to make the early steps (offering, promising, requesting an advantage) of a corrupt deal already an offence and, thus, to give a clear signal (from a criminal policy point of view) that bribery is not acceptable. Besides, such a dissociation makes the prosecution of bribery offences easier since it can be very difficult to prove that two parties (the bribe-giver and the bribe-taker) have formally agreed upon a corrupt deal. Besides, there is often no such formal deal but only a mutual understanding, for instance when it is common knowledge in a municipality that to obtain a building permit one has to pay a "fee" to the decision maker to obtain a favourable decision. A working definition of corruption is also provided as follows in article 3 of the Civil Law Convention on Corruption (ETS 174): For the purpose of this Convention, "corruption" means requesting, offering, giving or accepting, directly or indirectly, a bribe or any other undue advantage or prospect thereof, which distorts the proper performance of any duty or behavior required of the recipient of the bribe, the undue advantage or the prospect thereof.
Trading in influence, or influence peddling in certain countries, refers to the situation where a person is selling his/her influence over the decision process involving a third party (person or institution). The difference with bribery is that this is a tri-lateral relation. From a legal point of view, the role of the third party (who is the target of the influence) does not really matter although he/she can be an accessory in some instances. It can be difficult to make a distinction between this form of corruption and certain forms of extreme and poorly regulated lobbying where for instance law- or decision-makers can freely "sell" their vote, decision power or influence to those lobbyists who offer the highest retribution, including where for instance the latter act on behalf of powerful clients such as industrial groups who want to avoid the passing of certain environmental, social, or other regulations perceived as too stringent, etc. Where lobbying is (sufficiently) regulated, it becomes possible to provide for a distinctive criteria and to consider that trading in influence involves the use of "improper influence", as in article 12 of the Criminal Law Convention on Corruption (ETS 173) of the Council of Europe.
[edit] Patronage
Main article: Patronage Patronage refers to favoring supporters, for example with government employment. This may be legitimate, as when a newly elected government changes the top officials in the administration in order to effectively implement its policy. It can be seen as corruption if this means that incompetent persons, as a payment for supporting the regime, are selected before more able ones. In nondemocracies many government officials are often selected for loyalty rather than ability. They may be almost exclusively selected from a particular group (for example, Sunni Arabs in Saddam Hussein's Iraq, the nomenklatura in the Soviet Union, or the
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Junkers in Imperial Germany) that support the regime in return for such favors. A similar problem can also be seen in Eastern Europe, for example in Romania, where the government is often accused of patronage (when a new government comes to power it rapidly changes most of the officials in the public sector).
Favoring relatives (nepotism) or personal friends (cronyism) of an official is a form of illegitimate private gain. This may be combined with bribery, for example demanding that a business should employ a relative of an official controlling regulations affecting the business. The most extreme example is when the entire state is inherited, as in North Korea or Syria. A milder form of cronyism is an "old boy network", in which appointees to official positions are selected only from a closed and exclusive social network such as the alumni of particular universities instead of appointing the most competent candidate. Seeking to harm enemies becomes corruption when official powers are illegitimately used as means to this end. For example, trumped-up charges are often brought up against journalists or writers who bring up politically sensitive issues, such as a politician's acceptance of bribes. In the Indian political system, leadership of national and regional parties are passed from generation to generation creating a system in which a family holds the center of power, some examples are most of the Dravidian parties of south India and also the largest party in India Congress.
Electoral fraud is illegal interference with the process of an election. Acts of fraud affect vote counts to bring about an election result, whether by increasing the vote share of the favored candidate, depressing the vote share of the rival candidates, or both. Also called voter fraud, the mechanisms involved include illegal voter registration, intimidation at polls, and improper vote counting.
[edit] Embezzlement
Main article: Embezzlement Embezzlement is outright theft of entrusted funds. It is a misappropriation of property. Another common type of embezzlement is that of entrusted government resources; for example, when a director of a public enterprise employs company workers to build or renovate his own house.
[edit] Kickbacks
See also: Anti-competitive practices and Bid rigging
A kickback is an official's share of misappropriated funds allocated from his or her organization to an organization involved in corrupt bidding. For example, suppose that a politician is in charge of choosing how to spend some public funds. He can give a contract to a company that is not the best bidder, or allocate more than they deserve. In this case, the company benefits, and in exchange for betraying the public, the official receives a kickback payment, which is a portion of the sum the company received. This sum itself may be all or a portion of the difference between the actual (inflated) payment to the company and the (lower) market-based price that would have been paid had the bidding been competitive. Kickbacks are not limited to government officials; any situation in which people are entrusted to spend funds that do not belong to them are susceptible to this kind of
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corruption. Kickbacks are also common in the pharmaceutical industry, as many doctors and physicians receive pay in return for added promotion and prescription of the drug these pharmaceutical companies are marketing.
Lacking control of the government. o Lacking civic society and non-governmental organizations which monitor the government. o An individual voter may have a rational ignorance regarding politics, especially in nationwide elections, since each vote has little weight. o Weak civil service, and slow pace of reform. o Weak rule of law. o Weak legal profession. o Weak judicial independence. o Lacking protection of whistleblowers.
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Lack of benchmarking, that is continual detailed evaluation of procedures and comparison to others who do similar things, in the same government or others, in particular comparison to those who do the best work. The Peruvian organization Ciudadanos al Dia has started to measure and compare transparency, costs, and efficiency in different government departments in Peru. It annually awards the best practices which has received widespread media attention. This has created competition among government agencies in order to improve. [15]
Opportunities and incentives o Individual officials routinely handle cash, instead of handling payments by giro or on a separate cash desk illegitimate withdrawals from supervised bank accounts are much more difficult to conceal. o Public funds are centralized rather than distributed. For example, if $1,000 is embezzled from a local agency that has $2,000 funds, it is easier to notice than from a national agency with $2,000,000 funds. See the principle of subsidiarity. o Large, unsupervised public investments. o Sale of state-owned property and privatization.[citation needed] o Poorly-paid government officials. o Government licenses needed to conduct business, e.g., import licenses, encourage bribing and kickbacks. o Long-time work in the same position may create relationships inside and outside the government which encourage and help conceal corruption and favoritism. Rotating government officials to different positions and geographic areas may help prevent this; for instance certain high rank officials in French government services (e.g. treasurer-paymasters general) must rotate every few years. o Costly political campaigns, with expenses exceeding normal sources of political funding, especially when funded with taxpayer money. o Less interaction with officials reduces the opportunities for corruption. For example, using the Internet for sending in required information, like applications and tax forms, and then processing this with automated computer systems. This may also speed up the processing and reduce unintentional human errors. See eGovernment. o A windfall from exporting abundant natural resources may encourage corruption.[16] (See Resource curse) o War and other forms of conflict correlate with a breakdown of public security. Social conditions o Self-interested closed cliques and "old boy networks". o Family-, and clan-centered social structure, with a tradition of nepotism/favouritism being acceptable. o A gift economy, such as the Soviet blat system, emerges in a Communist centrally planned economy. o Lacking literacy and education among the population. o Frequent discrimination and bullying among the population. o Tribal solidarity, giving benefits to certain ethnic groups
According to a study of the conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation, lack of economic freedom explains 71% of corruption[17]
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Like other governmental economic activities, also privatization, such as in the sale of government-owned property, is particularly at the risk of cronyism. Privatizations in Russia, Latin America, and East Germany were accompanied by large scale corruption during the sale of the state owned companies. Those with political connections unfairly gained large wealth, which has discredited privatization in these regions. While media have reported widely the grand corruption that accompanied the sales, studies have argued that in addition to increased operating efficiency, daily petty corruption is, or would be, larger without privatization, and that corruption is more prevalent in non-privatized sectors. Furthermore, there is evidence to suggest that extralegal and unofficial activities are more prevalent in countries that privatized less.[20] There is the counter point, however, that oligarchy industries can be quite corrupt ( "competition" like collusive price-fixing, pressuring dependent businesses, etc. ), and only by having a portion of the market owned by someone other than that oligarchy, i.e. public sector, can keep them in line ( if the public sector gas company is making money & selling gas for 1/2 of the price of the private sector companies... the private sector companies won't be able to simultaneously gouge to that degree & keep their customers: the competition keeps them in line ). Private sector corruption can increase the poverty/helplessness of the population, so it can affect government corruption, in the long-term. In the European Union, the principle of subsidiarity is applied: a government service should be provided by the lowest, most local authority that can competently provide it. An effect is that distribution of funds into multiple instances discourages embezzlement, because even small sums missing will be noticed. In contrast, in a centralized authority, even minute proportions of public funds can be large sums of money.
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the Criminal Law Convention on Corruption (ETS 173); the Civil Law Convention on Corruption (ETS 174); the Additional Protocol to the Criminal Law Convention on Corruption (ETS 191); the Twenty Guiding Principles for the Fight against Corruption (Resolution (97) 24); the Recommendation on Codes of Conduct for Public Officials (Recommendation No. R (2000) 10) ; and the Recommendation on Common Rules against Corruption in the Funding of Political Parties and Electoral Campaigns (Rec(2003)4)
The purpose of these instruments was to address the various forms of corruption (involving the public sector, the private sector, the financing of political activities, etc.) whether they had a strictly domestic or also a transnational dimension. To monitor the implementation at national level of the requirements and principles provided in those texts, a monitoring mechanism the Group of States Against Corruption (also known as GRECO) was created. Further conventions were adopted at the regional level under the aegis of the Organization of American States (OAS or OEA), the African Union, and in 2003, at the universal level under that of the United Nations.
[edit] Whistleblowers
Main article: Whistleblower
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activities, the Group of States Against Corruption has identified a great variety of possible improvements in those areas (see the country reports adopted under the Third Evaluation Round).
<ule of Eaw http$%%en.wi.ipedia.org%wi.i%<uleFofFlaw The <ule of law in its most basic form is no one is above the law. Perhaps the most important application of the rule of law is the principle that governmental authority is legitimately e7ercised only in accordance with8 publicly disclosed laws, adopted and enforced in accordance with established procedural steps that are referred to as due process. The rule of law is hostile to dictatorship and to anarchy. According to modern Anglo"American thin.ing8 hallmar.s of adherence to the rule of law commonly include a clear separation of powers8 legal certainty8 the principle of legitimate e7pectation ,+
"the phrase the rule of law has become meaningless thanks to ideological abuse and general over use"
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