Crimes of the Functionaries: Bribery, Extortion and Favouritism

Abstract

Top-level corruption does not exhaust the totality of corrupt practices in communist countries. Lower-level corruption, which occurs in the daily encounters between lower-rank functionaries and the rest of society is not only extremely wide-spread, but appears to be inevitable under the political and economic conditions prevailing in these countries. Indeed, it results from the inefficiency of the centralized, politically managed economy, and chronic shortages of goods as well as from the tendency of communist states to control every aspect of citizens’ lives. The rigid and politically controlled distribution of various goods, services and opportunities invites corruption and manipulation by giving almost uncontrollable power over those commodities to the functionaries of the state administration and the state trade.