GALLUP NEWS SERVICE
The doctor keeps talking, talking but his eyes keep darting,
darting to my fist -- wondering if I'll give him a crisp
blue-colored bill.
-- Anton Chekhov, The Cherry Orchard, 1904
PRINCETON, NJ -- Has the move to a more market-oriented economy
in Russia begun to clean up the culture of bribery and graft that
characterized the country during Chekhov's time and throughout the
Soviet era? Gallup World Poll data indicate that three in four
Russians would say no, that there is actually more corruption in
Russian society now than there was prior to the collapse of the
Soviet Union in 1991. Analysts have noted that the only difference
is that there is now more money in the system, so that previously
informal patronage relationships are now more likely to involve
cash exchanges.
Because of that shift, many transactions that would be
considered bribes by European or North American standards are often
not labeled as such by Russians if they don't actually involve
money changing hands. Gallup's survey made it clear that the
questions being asked concerned not only money, but also gifts or
mutually rendered services and favors. Even so, it's likely that
the results for Russia underestimate the true prevalence of what
those in developed Western societies would consider bribery.
Nevertheless, according to the data, 21% of those questioned
admitted to having personally given a bribe in the last 12 months.
Among Moscow residents, the number is far higher, at 40%. By
comparison, the incidence of bribery in St. Petersburg, Russia's
northern capital and the city where the G8 leaders met not long
ago, is close to the national average, at 19%.
Shades of Gray
With so many having had personal experience with bribery,
Russians have taken a nuanced view of its morality and role in
society. In cases where the issue significantly affects human
well-being -- for example, in matters of health and the lives of
loved ones -- they are resignedly ready to give recompense-seekers
their last penny.
Of those surveyed, 44% consider it morally acceptable to bribe
"nurses or doctors in order to get better care in the hospital."
Fifty-seven percent of those who have admitted to giving a bribe in
the past 12 months confirmed that they have personally
"unofficially paid" a nurse or a physician to provide care.
About one-third of those surveyed (32%) say they consider it
morally acceptable to give a bribe in order to have a child
admitted to a college/university. Among Russians aged 15 to 24
(those most likely to be in college or considering college), 42%
consider such bribes to be morally acceptable.
Russian business entrepreneurs are perhaps more likely to have
to give bribes than anyone else (in Russia, a bribe given in the
course of business is termed "otkat" -- literally, "kickback").
According to the INDEM Foundation, four years ago, the average sum
of enticements that government officials demanded from business
owners was $10,000; today, the chance to set up and develop one's
own business costs about $135,000.
Willingness to engage in bribery is common among Russians who
own businesses -- Gallup's data reveal that 47% of respondents who
say they are business owners also say they have given bribes in the
last 12 months. As the graph indicates, Russians who have
thought about starting their own businesses are
significantly more likely than those who have never thought about
starting a business to consider each type of bribe listed as
morally acceptable. Thirty-two percent of those who have ever
thought about starting their own businesses say they have given
bribes in the last 12 months (versus the overall figure of 21% for
the entire population).
Finally, the idea that bribery has attained a veneer of
legitimacy is reflected in that the percentage of government
employees who admit to having given bribes is no less than the
corresponding percentage among all Russians. Government employees
are also just as likely as other respondents to say they consider
bribes to be morally acceptable.
Culture of Corruption?
That there is a relatively large proportion of Russians who view
various forms of bribery as morally acceptable bespeaks the
entrenched nature of the practice. Many Russians may view bribery
as a victimless crime, simply because it has for so long been part
of the way things are done. But since Mikhail Gorbachev's glasnost
reforms of the late 1980s, a growing body of literature has
documented how bribery undercuts the rule of law, slows democratic
reforms, and ensures that those without the means to pay bribes
will not have the means to improve their quality of life.
Perhaps most troubling is the idea that Russian culture has
grown more corrupt since the fall of the Soviet Union, not less.
Young Russians are even more accepting of bribery than are those
who can clearly remember the Soviet era: For every type of bribe
listed, the younger the respondent, the more likely he or she is to
feel it is morally acceptable.
Survey Methods
Results are based on face-to-face interviews conducted in
February 2006 with a randomly selected national sample of 2,011
Russian adults, aged 15 and older. For results based on these
samples, one can say with 95% confidence that the maximum error
attributable to sampling and other random effects is ±2.4
percentage points. In addition to sampling error, question wording
and practical difficulties in conducting surveys can introduce
error or bias into the findings of public opinion polls.
