THE CONCEPT OF CORRUPTION AS AN ECONOMIC AND LEGAL PHENOMENON

Abstract

The article considers the concept of corruption, morphological origin of the term, the views of scientists on the essence of this phenomenon. The purpose of this study is to examine in more detail the approaches to understanding the essence of the concept of "corruption". The main approaches to the interpretation of the concept of “corruption”, which complement each other, are described. These include approaches: traditional or normative-valuable, which defines corruption as a violation of the law, morality and ethics; modernist or classic approach, which considers corruption as an illegal act or bribery of the functionary; economic or market-centric, in which corruption appears as a shadow political and economic market; revisionist or functional, whose representatives characterize corruption as a positive phenomenon for the transition economy; politological or political, which represents corruption as a separate institution in process of realization of the public relations in the context of the power usage by its subjects in order to influence on the political processes; behavioral or socio-psychological, which sees corruption as a socio-psychological phenomenon in all its manifestations; institutional or public-administrative, which characterizes corruption as a special form of public-government relations, which supposes the illegal exchange of official powers of the functionary of the power structure for personal preferences. The characteristics of the definitions of “corruption” for each approach are given. The official or in other words legal approach (legislative or legal) to the interpretation of “corruption” based on national and international legal documents has also been studied. It is noted that, in the light of the variety of doctrinal and legal approaches to the interpretation of the concept of “corruption” it is difficult to form a universal definition that would include all the aspects of its manifestation: legal, political, economic, moral and ethical. Therefore, to clarify the definition of “corruption” the purpose of corruption and their objects have been analyzed, the subjects of corruption have been characterized, the forms of the corruption manifestation have been studied, ways to implement and spread corruption have been unfolded, and  the functions of corruption in public relations have been studied. Specific, identifying features of the corruption that should be reflected in the definition have been defined. On the basis of the undertaken study the author’s interpretation of the concept of “corruption” is given.