The Economic and Political Impact of Corruption on Governance and Democracy: A case study of the Ellen Johnson Sirleaf's led Administration 2006/2016

ABSTRACT

Corruption is a form of or unethical conduct by a person entrusted with a position of authority often to acquire personal benefit. Corruption may include many activities including bribery and embezzlement: though it may also involve practices that are legal in many countries. Government, or 'political', corruption occurs when an office-holder or other governmental employee acts in an official capacity for personal gain. The word corrupt when used as an adjective literally means "utterly broken". The word was first used by Aristotle
and later byCicero who added the terms bribe and abandonment of good habits. Stephen D. Morris, a professor of politics, writes that (political) corruption is the illegitimate use of public power to benefit a private interest.Corruption scandals as well as other reason have toppled governments in Liberia and other developing countries. Corruption historically has been the obstacle for Liberia’s development in spite of the abundant resources we have. This paper is left to further research the underlining causes and effects of corruption on our overall governance in Liberia and how we can find solutions for tackling corruption in public sector in Liberia. Regression analysis shows that when a country manages to improve its standing on the corruption indices from 6 to 8, it will experience a 4 percent point increase in its investment rate and a 0.5 percent point increase in its annual per capita GDP growth rate. In addition, the government of Liberia will increase her spending on education by 0.5 of 1 percent GDP. Those large effects suggest that policies to curb corruption could have significant payoff.