Corruption is neither a new phenomenon nor restricted to India or other third world countries. Even the advanced capitalist countries like the US & the UK are also infected by this virus. Corruption is a universal phenomenon that has deep roots in the capitalist system itself. It cannot be understood, analysed or explained in isolation to the nature and the working of the capitalist economy. In his first volume of Capital, Karl Marx quoted British trade unionist T.J. Dunning in a footnote in Chapter 31 to state: Capital eschews no profit, or very small profit, just as Nature was formerly said to abhor a vacuum. With adequate profit, capital is very bold. A certain 10 per cent will ensure its employment anywhere; 20 per cent certain will produce eagerness; 50 per cent, positive audacity; 100 per cent will make it ready to trample on all human laws; 300 per cent, and there is not a crime at which it will scruple, nor a risk it will not run, even to the chance of its owner being hanged. From a Marxist point of view, corruption is intricately linked to the process capital accumulation and profit maximization. The urge to maximize profits at all costs, which prevails under capitalism, creates an environment conducive for corruption. Marx has further elaborated in Capital that the process of capital accumulation – which drives economic growth under capitalism – also leads to the concentration of capital in fewer hands. The processes of capital accumulation and concentration of capital creates giant monopolies, which in turn continuously pushes the barriers of what is legal in order to earn more profit and grow into bigger monopolies. More profits are not only earned through the normal process of making investments in new enterprises under capitalism. Profiteering often takes the form of big monopolies taking over existing public assets (through privatisation) or grabbing common resources like land, minerals, water or even airwaves (spectrum). This trend has accelerated during the phase of globalisation, which has seen a massive increase in the power of big monopolies. The collusion of the arms of the state and big monopoly capital is the biggest source of corruption in contemporary times.
Posted on: Fri, 14 Mar 2014 09:02:25 +0000
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