 |
Business | Industries | Finance | Tax |
| Index: > A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z |
|
|||||
| First Prev [ 1 2 ] Next Last |
In a kleptocracy the rulers and their cronies use the mechanisms of government to tax the public at large in order to amass personal fortunes. "Kleptocrats" may use various overt methods ( money laundering, anonymous banking) as a way of protecting and concealing their ill-gotten gains.
"Kleptocracies" tend to be stable. That is, frequently politics consists of one set of thieves displacing their predecessors. Haiti for much of its history is just such a case.
Because corruption imposes a massive tax on enterprises, kleptocracies tend to have poorly performing economies. The kleptocrats realize that they have more to gain from taking a large share of a stable or shrinking pie than from a shrinking share of an increasing pie. Economies based on natural resource extraction are particularly prone to kleptocracy, as the kleptocrats simply tax the Ricardian rentIn economics, Ricardian rent is a type of rent created by variation in resource quality. See also economic rent von Thuren rent hotelling rent Economics..
Also, corrupt politicians routinely ignore underlying economic and socialA society is a group of people that form a semi-closed (or semi-open) system, in which most interactions are with other individuals belonging to the group. More abstractly, a society is a network of relationships between entities. A society is an interdep problems in the quest for wealth and power. Because they do not try to build functioning stateThis article discusses states as sovereign political entities. For other meanings, see state (disambiguation). In international law and international relations, a state is a political entity possessing sovereignty, i. not being subject to any higher polits, and even cannot build large repressive forces because of the danger of coups, the governments are often incompetent in the face of social crises. Thus, some kleptocracies have collapsed into civil warFor other uses, see Civil War (disambiguation A civil war is a war in which the competing parties are segments of the same country or empire. Civil war is usually a high intensity stage in an unresolved political struggle for national control of state pow and anarchyAnarchy can refer to: the political theory anarchism, with its traditional ("left") wing also known as libertarian socialism or anarcho-communism, and a more recent "right" wing known as anarcho-capitalism (more accurately described as "anti-state capital.
Among the more infamous examples of "kleptocratic" government were ZaireZaire was the name between 1971 and 1997 of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The Belgian Congo became independent in 1960 as the "Republic of the Congo", the same name as its neighbour the former French colony of Congo. The title Democratic Republic under Mobutu Sese SekoMobutu Sese Seko Nkuku wa za Banga (or Mobutu Sese Seko Koko Ngbendu Wa Za Banga; October 14, 1930 September 7, 1997) was the President of Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo) from 1965 to 1997. Mobutu was born Joseph-Desire Mobutu in Lisala,'s rule, Indonesia under Suharto's rule, Iraq under Saddam Hussein, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia under Slobodan Milosevic and Romania under Nicolae Ceausescu. Older examples include the Barbary states of North Africa in the 17th through early 19th centuries.
Less extreme examples are Nationalist China under Chiang Kai-shek, the Philippines under Marcos' administration, again with Estrada's administration, Nazarbayev's Kazakhstan, and Puerto Rico under the administration of Pedro Rosselló.
Some observers have taken to using the term to tar democratic political processes that permit corporations to influence policy. The use of kleptocracy in this context priviliges one form of rent seeking over all the others that are a normal concomitant of democracy. Ralph Nader famously denounced the United States as a kleptocracy during the 2000 presidential campaign.
| Politics | Business | Finance |
 |
 |
 |
|