Description
Most recommendations for dealing with bribery and corruption are economic in nature; for example raising salaries, increasing punishment, and stepping up surveillance. Are there other ways to deal with corruption and bribery from a broad, social point of view? Defend your answer and cite one or more examples.
Sources of factual information and any statements attributable to authors should be cited using proper APA style.
This discussion affords us the opportunity to consider the principal-agent model in the context of corruption and bribery in Asia. In one sense, the one who is seeking to bribe is the principal and the official who is being bribed is the agent. It may be useful to apply the model in another sense. Public officials, in theory, act on behalf of the citizenry. That is, public officials are supposed to act in the best interest of the citizens. In this construct, the citizen is the principal, and the official is the agent. The problem arises, however, when public officials begin to act in their own interest. The problem is exacerbated when that action takes the form of bribery and corruption. Whenever an agent acts on behalf of a principal, their interests diverge, even if only slightly. The degree of that divergence will be related to the level of inefficiency.
