Global strategies to tackle corruption
Discuss about the Evolution of Economic Institutions and Ideologies.
Global strategies exist to tackle the probability of corruption that is playing an essential phase in the anti-corruption industries. These industries are therefore provided support by the most powerful governmental institutions. For instance, in all the corruption cases, it has been argued that there have been no kind of damage and neither any kind of benefit (Mariniello 2014). The outline of the essay includes the relationship of neoliberal ideology and corporate crimes. In relation to criminology and law, there has been a relationship between neoliberal ideology and corporate crime. It further highlights the purpose of this ideology.
The purpose of this essay is to explore the concept of neo-liberalism and corporate crimes and demonstrate the relationship between the two concepts. In Australia, neo-liberalism goes through the competition for defining the characteristic of the relationship among human beings. The purpose of it is to redefine the citizens as the customers whose choices are carried out in the process of buying and selling. This process provides merit of rewards and punished inefficiency. According to the doctrine of neo-liberal, a hidden hand usually regulates the behavior of the participants in the market as they have been opposed to the government rules. Generally, it refers to the subculture of using violence and intimidation to outlaw this concept.
The term neo-liberalism can be applied in different economic and social ideas. This ideology is defined as a policy model that focuses on the value of the competition of free market. The concept of this theory has been segregated in terms of the belief that is sustained in the economic growth. The economic growth acts as a means to obtain the human progress and the confidence in the free markets.
The term ‘Corporate crime’ is defined as the crimes usually committed by the corporations or the individuals acting on behalf of the corporation. There are a few forms of corruption that is constructed based on both the rational economic activity as the function of the hidden land market forces. Bribery is generally represented as a rational mechanism of the resource allocation (Gilson 2016).
Some of the examples of corporate crimes refer to the establishment of the corporations, which are used to launder the crime proceeds. Further, corporate crimes may include the crimes committed by the corporations themselves such as tax avoidance and cheat, corruption or theft, etc. Further instances of corporate crimes include use of political powers by corporate to fulfill their profit-making objective by getting rid of any person who stands in the way of achieving their objectives.
Relationship between neo-liberalism and corporate crime
According to the doctrine of neo-liberal, a hidden hand usually regulates the behavior of the participants in the market as they have been opposed to the government rules. There is an usual tendency in the non-liberal capitalism for producing the unregulated spaces for the commercial activities. This doctrine of neo-liberalism forms an environment for the markets that are corrupted and has certain transactions to flourish. The economies have increasingly moved from an economic system that is covered by the state enterprise to a private enterprise based economy. The therapy of neo-liberal usually involves the process of removing the regulatory controls upon the creation of new set rules (Gilson 2016).
However, the relationship between the private wealth accumulation and the rule of law is not over simplified. The process of the economic systems does not exist without the reference to the systems of the rules. The systems of rules in the liberal democracies are important because the economic policy have treated the citizens with fairness and consistency. However, there are major areas of the corporate conduct that can breach the law and the offences of the companies (Gray 2018). There are discriminatory practices that can be related with the neoliberal ideology. Apart from the relationship that exists between corporate crimes and the concept of neo-liberalism, the two concepts often contradict in terms of their distinct ideologies.
The therapy of neo-liberal usually involves the process of removing the regulatory controls upon the creation of new set rules. Neo-liberalism legitimizes the policy model of social studies and economics that transfer control the factors of economy to the private sector from the public sector (Gray 2018). In many parts of the world, the poor people talk about their negative impacts of the massive neo-liberalism. The poor people express their related concern with the lack of investment existing in the industry (Gilson 2016).
It is worthwhile to mention here that neo-liberalism in the modern context has become a threat to the global society. Gilson (2016) states that the entire concept of neoliberal thought are based on the elements of power and wealth. However, it tends to reduce the tax and regulation and transform public services into public. Consequently, it is more favorable to the business entities and the rich personalities who manage to convince themselves that they may get what they deserve which implies power and wealth while ignoring class, inheritance and education.
Nevertheless, Chagnon (2015) asserts that the corporate giants have become a significant threat to the society, democracy and government and that they intend to serve the interests of the management and the shareholders and are least concerned about the human rights, environment and law. These can be attributed to the prevalence of the concept of neo-liberalism. At the individual level, the terms “the community” and the “public good” are perceived as unnecessary elements of the welfare state. Above that, issues like inequality, unemployment, poverty have been attributed to be the fault of individuals while the inadequacy in the social structure is not a matter of concern and is not considered to be the primary reason that gives rise to such social issues. The neoliberal ideas insist that every action that must be undertaken to address the social issues must be carried out with self-interest, individually and rationally.
Definition of Corporate Crime
At the national level, neo-liberalism has brought changes in the manner a state operates which has though brought the countries closer to and only the fittest nation would survive, but at the same time, it had resulted in abolishment of tariffs and subsidies as an effect of state restructuring.
At international level, neoliberal theory emphasizes on three main points namely, free circulation of capital, free trade and investment right. It implies that neo-liberalism focuses on the exchanges all over the world, the development of the international corporations. It further concentrates on huge projects without any governmental interference. Consequently, more states must accept policies from corporations; reduce the governmental regulation placing the society in a position from which it will not earn any benefits. Similarly, corporations have gained too much power that is surpasses the value of human rights. Corporate crimes refer to the activities that usually affect the businesses such as tax cheat and avoidance, theft or corruption.
Under certain circumstances, Chagnon (2015) asserts that it becomes difficult to determine whether an activity amounts to a corporate crime due to its several aspects. The corporations may also use the political powers to fulfill the requirement and use approaches that will be beneficial for the corporations only irrespective of any concerns about the society and other stakeholders. In the era of globalization, there are innumerable incidents that keep taking place due to the corporations such as corporate issues affecting the environment. Such incident requires the corporations to take the responsibilities of the issues. Hunt (2016) disagrees and states that the issues that arise from the operations of business organizations are not occurring due to the Executive heads who control the corporations but the nature of the modern business is causing such damage to the society.
Corporate crimes have become a global threat in the contemporary era, where multinational corporations [MNC] plays a significant role in developing employment opportunities and widen the market base by transferring goods and services due to the free trade agreements that has removed the trade barriers. The MNCs are perceived as a single entity that are not as concerned for the benefits for their homes and host countries as they are regarding the global benefit of the companies. This establishes in the words of Posner (2014), the power of corporations in influencing lives of millions.
Under such circumstances, it becomes difficult to determine crimes committed by the corporations as they often overlap with white-collar crimes. For example- it has been proved that fast food franchises have been indulging in promoting unhealthy food ingredients that are likely to jeopardize lives of people by causing diseases like diabetes and obesity. Nevertheless, these franchises belong to the MNCs, which due to significant global influence of multinationals and its advertising strategies drive people to consume junk food (Chagnon 2015).
Neoliberalism and the growth of markets
Loader and Sparks (2016) states that MNCs may influence the government by exercising control over information, manipulate media, providing opportunities to politicians and make credibility purchases. Further, the companies also make investments into politics due to which they have become more aggressive and comfortable and they use their power to exercise control over national policies as business activists. Furthermore, majority of people might not be fond of the idea of paying income taxes, tariffs but they are bound to make income tax payments because without such payments, various issues will arise within the public infrastructure, public services and the community altogether (Hunt 2016). Nevertheless, it has been often observed that certain wealthiest Multi-national companies have attempted to evade tax payments or have cut down on tax to pay less. The corporate giants are influential enough to evade taxes and deceive both governmental and non-governmental organizations.
In Australia, the ambiguity associated with the concept of neo-liberalism ideology is the primary reason for causing various significant crises such as off-shoring of power and wealth that is evident from the Panama Papers case, deliberate disintegration of education, public health, disintegration of ecosystems, revival of child poverty, etc. Such issues are usually considered to be emerging separately or individually because most of people are not even aware of the fact that such issues have either been exacerbated by the consistent neo-liberalism ideology. The concept of neo-liberalism has become so persistent that it is no more perceived as an ideology but a type of biological law such as Darwin’s evolution theory. Neo-liberalism considers competition as an element that defines human relations. For instance, it re-defines citizens as consumers who can exercise their democratic choices through selling and buying mechanism, a process where merit is rewarded and there is no place for inefficiency.
According to the neo-liberalism ideology, regulation of tax should be minimized and public services shall be privatized. It is believed that collective bargaining and trade unions are market impediments that hinder formation of natural hierarchy of losers and winners. Inequality is reshaped as virtuous that is, a reward for utility and creator of wealth that trickles down in order to ensure development for everyone. On the other hand, any attempts to make an equal society are considered as morally acerbic. The rich convince themselves that the wealth acquired by them is based on their merit, thus, disregarding the advantages that have actually facilitated them to secure such wealth like class, inheritance and education. The unprivileged or the poor may blame themselves for all their misfortunes and failures despite having little or less chances to change their circumstances (Posner 2014).
If there is unemployment, it is because people are not eligible for being employed but structural unemployment must not be considered as the primary reason for it. Similarly, the fact that housing expenses are significantly high must not be taken into account but if the maximum credit card limit is exceeded, the person shall be considered improvident. In other words, modern world is governed by competition where those who are not updated and lag behind are simply self-defined as losers. The freedom from collective bargaining and trade unions that neo-liberalism offers signify freedom to suppress wages, freedom from regulations imply endangered workers, charge of iniquitous interest rates and design unusual financial instruments (Rhodes, C., 2016).
Lastly, freedom from tax would imply freedom from the wealth distribution that otherwise aims at lifting people out of poverty. Government use the neoliberal crises as both opportunity and an excuse to reduce taxes, privatize the remaining public services and tear the social safety net, re-regulate the citizens and deregulate corporations. The neo-liberalism policies are weighed down by market failures and the corporations are conferred with the responsibility to deliver public services and the corporations usually keep the profits, the state keeps the risk.
References:
Chagnon, N., 2015. Reverberate, resonate, reproduce: A reconsideration of ideological influence in crime news production. Critical Criminology, 23(1), pp.105-123.
Eriksson, J. ed., 2017. Threat Politics: New Perspectives on Security, Risk and Crisis Management: New Perspectives on Security, Risk and Crisis Management. Routledge.
Gilson, E.C., 2016. ENTREPRENEURIAL SUBJECTIVITY, THE PRIVATIZATION OF RISK, AND THE ETHICS OF VULNERABILITY. Privatization, Vulnerability, and Social Responsibility: A Comparative Perspective, p.87.
Giroux, H.A., 2018. Terror of Neo-liberalism: Authoritarianism and the Eclipse of Democracy. Routledge.
Gray, C., 2018. International law and the use of force. Oxford University Press.
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/neoliberalism-power-corporations-ba-h-binh-johnny-pham
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/apr/15/neoliberalism-ideology-problem-george-monbiot
Hunt, E.K., 2016. Property and Prophets: The Evolution of Economic Institutions and Ideologies: The Evolution of Economic Institutions and Ideologies. Routledge.
Monbiot, G., 2016. Neo-liberalism–the ideology at the root of all our problems. The Guardian, 15(04).
Posner, R.A., 2014. Economic analysis of law. Wolters Kluwer Law & Business.
Rhodes, C., 2016. Democratic business ethics: Volkswagen’s emissions scandal and the disruption of corporate sovereignty. Organization Studies, 37(10), pp.1501-1518.
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