The Culture of Corruption
The culture of corruption is explained as the opinion and attitudes related to corruption within a country. It is noticed that political culture of Mexico starts with soap opera like scandals, evidence of widespread corruption, wild accusations, and ritualistic anti-corruption campaigns. The main controversy is present in the nature of a relationship that is the basis of the connection between culture and corruption. According to an approach, the culture of corruption is considered as the outcome and not cause which took initiation due to deep-rooted political corruption. While on the other hand, another approach states that cultural attributes provide the setting that becomes the cause of political corruption. This is the reason that argument is indicative of the long-standing dispute over the relationship between democracy and civic culture. As per the perspective of structuralize-institutionalist view, the culture of corruption is the effect of deep-rooted corruption. It argues on the matter that due to political corruption the confidence of public institutions is undermined along with the reduction in regime legitimacy, weakens the interpersonal trust level, and saps the civic contribution. This is the reason that political corruption raises political estrangement. This means that culture of corruption has a massive impact on the political condition of the country because it affects the commitment of people towards projects, public order, and civic behavior in an adverse manner (Morris 2003).
Profiling Mexico’s Culture of Corruption
It is noticed that corruption is very deeply ingrained in the Mexican political culture. The presence of political corruption has affected the accountability, transparency, effectiveness and legitimacy of the country a lot in an adverse manner. Mexico currently is ranked among the top 35 corrupted countries in the world which means that political history of the country in terms of corruption is not very supportive (Morris and Klesner 2010).
Extent of Corruption
According to Pellegrini (2011), measuring the level of corruption within a country is not an easy task as there are different aspects that need to be considered. In Mexico, corruption among public is very widespread. It is observed that more than half of the government officials in the country are corrupted due to which the whole political system is impacted badly. This depicts the fact that political culture of corruption within Mexico is not being controlled and is increasing say by day. It is analyzed that the extent of political corruption is increasing extensively in Mexico as the government officials are not considering the impact it is having on their economic condition. Moreover, it is noticed that the extent of political corruption within the country is also increasing rapidly as no control is being implemented by the government officials. Therefore, in comparison to other countries of the world the extent and level of political corruption in Mexico is very high.
Causes of Corruption
Three main causes of political corruption within the region of Mexico are there which makes it important for the top officials of the country to take measures so that this problem of corruption can be minimized to the utmost level. These causes of political culture of corruption in Mexico are as follows:
The foremost cause is the size of the informal economy of Mexico. The population of Mexico is dependent on the economic practices that are tolerated and are outside the law. These comprise of minor infractions, crouching in unoccupied lands on urban borders such as hawking goods on the street. However, in order to regulate the informal economy, the petty corruption can be used as the only way. This petty corruption is initiated by the police who take a bribe in order to look on the other way at the time of controlling the overall volume as well as the flow of operations (Edmonds-Poli and Shirk 2008).
No Accountability without Taxation
Another factor that causes the political culture of corruption includes Mexico’s tax base. The government of the country is dependent heavily on the state-owned oil company. For instance, 30% of the federal budget of the country is received by Pemex. Moreover, low level of taxes has been collected by the federal government as permitted by the Mexican government. Only 10% of the GDP was collected by the Mexican government from its tax base. While on the other hand, the total revenue was only of about 18% of the GDP which included income from Pemex. Therefore, low level of accountability is obtained from narrow tax base (Cejudo 2008). It is imperative from the prospect of Mexico that they must implement strict rules and regulations in order to improve their tax collection process for the reason that it would definitely assist them to generate revenue in a more appropriate manner. With the help of effective taxation policy, they can easily enhance the process of accountability within their country in a more effective way.
U.S Drug and Control Policy
US Drug and control policy is the main cause of increase political culture of corruption within Mexico. The quagmire of impunity of the country has been impacted massively due to this policy. While on the other hand, the border to Mexico and United States has intense traffic due to which difference is observed between the two nations. For instance, if labor is cheap in one nation then the workers have the option of cross the border. The same is the issue in other commodities as well as due to which the corruption is taking place in Mexico (Cejudo 2008).
Political Corruption and Mexican Democracy
The backbone of Mexican political system is Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) which got defeated after 71 years of political power and after the arrival of Vicente Fox, the candidate of National Action Party. The defeat of the party gave rise of political corruption in the country as it was the major drawback for the country. The problem of drug trafficking also started to take birth in the country after the defeat of PRI. Based on this, it is evaluated that due to political changes, Mexican political system was transformed along with modus operandi of drug trafficking and corruption. HHHHHHHowever, the Mexican democracy helped the country in dealing with the problem of political corruption as an open environment and rights were given to individuals to resolve their issues. With the help of these rights, the citizens were able to say and fight against the political corruption increasing in Mexico. Nevertheless, not much improvement is noticed in the political culture of corruption of the country as the rights are not being utilized appropriately by the individuals in Mexico (Pellegrini 2011).
Impact of Corruption on Mexico
It is noted that the corruption influence the overall economic activities of a country quite badly that is why it is important from the prospect of Mexico that they must consider this factor consciously in order to minimize this problem quickly. However, it is a core duty of the top officials of Mexico that they must impose strict rules and regulations through which they can easily minimize the problem of corruption. It is found that most of the developing countries face the problem of corruption within their countries that create problems for them to boost their economy and encourage foreign investors to invest their resources in that country. With the help of a large amount of foreign investment, countries can easily manage their economic operations that would ultimately influence their overall reputation in an optimistic manner (Niblo 2000).
It is observed that these days most of the businesses are quite conscious at the time of expanding their business operations in another part of the world they usually consider the political factor very closely in order to assess the overall political situation in that country. For that reason, it is a prior duty of the political parties of Mexico to consider this factor closely and try to improve their political situation by reducing the level of corruption to the negligible level. However, with the help of different corruption prevention program, the responsible authority of Mexico cut down the problem of all sorts of corruption that might encourage them to attain their economic goals and target frequently without any disruption or problem (Barrington 2012).
Prevention of Corruption in Mexico
It is important from the prospect of Mexico that they must take some serious measure in order to minimize the problem of corruption from their country for the reason that it would influence their overall economic activities in a pessimistic manner. For that reason, the higher officials of Mexico are quite keen to impose strict rules and regulations in order to tackle the problem of corruption viable that is why they form National Anticorruption System (NAS) to attain their set goals and objectives (Edmonds-Poli and Shirk 2012).
Role of NAS
The role of NAS is very imperative in the implementation of strict rules and regulations within the country to avoid the risk of corruption at any cost. However, the NAS is the legal system that will direct the establishments of all state levels, the hindrance, empathy and penalty of administrative duties and fraud acts, as well as the assessment and control of public sources. In addition, the NAS will have a Management Committee that will be incorporated by the title owners of the Federal Superior Audit, for the purpose of preventing the level of corruption (Barrington 2012).
It is noticed that the Team of People Participation will be incorporated by five famous people that have backed to clearness, to an open administration or anticipation. However, this committee will be in charge of the formation of the mechanism to organize with the local structure, the policy and promotion of approaches for assessment and control of public sources, avoidance of fraud and to discourage managerial unlawful activities and actions of corruption as well. They are also responsible for recognizing the ways for the exchange, supply, and arrangement and modernizing of the data, associated with dishonesty, formulated by managerial unlawful activities. It is found that on an annual basis, this committee will have to create a report that entails the enactment and outcomes in the implementation of its responsibilities and the presentation of the approaches and plans in this problem founded on such report. However, they might issue suggestions, which will not be obligatory for the officials, but will request them to implement the actions that reinforce the avoidance of managerial ruptures and activities of corruption; as well as to encourage the development of its enactment and interior affairs. With the help of NAS, Mexico can easily tackle the complex situation of corruption and boost their economic activities appropriately that would definitely assist them to encourage FDI in their country to improve their economic position (Cejudo 2008, Pellegrini 2011).
It is concluded that there is a strong impact of corruption on the overall stability of Mexico for the reason that it throws their bad impression on the other countries. The political culture of the country is not very effective as corruption is rooted extensively in the economy. The extent and level of the political culture of corruption are high in Mexico due to which the economic condition of the country is being affected adversely. This political culture of corruption can be controlled significantly by the country by incorporating the role of NAS. This body helps in resolving the problem of corruption by making communities and involves the major stakeholders of the country to cut down the probability of increasing political corruption in Mexico