Interest-related,Activity Choice & Public’s Tolerance of Corruption:Based on the Survey Data of G Province

 

Ni Xing （Sun Yat-sen University）

 

Abstract:China has launched an intensive and comprehensive anti-corruption campaign since the CCP’s 18th national congress.However,corruption in China is never eliminated.Many factors result in corruption.The existing literatures mostly take a perspective of agent,focusing on the behaviors of governments and officials,as well as the institutions and economic environments that feed corruption.What is left to study is the perspective of the public.It is hard to eliminate corruption by only relying on the government.Eliminating corruption requires efforts from all aspects of society.Public participation is significant in anti-corruption.

Under the perspective of the public’s role in anti-corruption,this study focuses on the public’s tolerance of corruption.Zero tolerance of corruption helps to foster an honest social culture,increase the probability of reporting corruption and the risk of committing corruption,and eventually eliminate corruption.Based on the evidence of G province in China,this research tries to answer the following questions:what is the level of public’s tolerance of corruption in contemporary China? Is there any variance of individual’s tolerance of corruption? If yes,what are the explanatory factors? 

The data comes from a random sampling survey conducted by Sun Yat-sen University in 2014.This survey is conducted by cellphone and covers all the municipals and counties or districts of G province.The sample size is 6919 individuals.Surveying one province helps the researchers to control the local institutions.The researchers inquire respondents’ opinions of corruption,including the tolerance of corruption.We use two variables to measure the tolerance of corruption:individual’s tolerance when the respondent is interest related with the corruption activity and considering whether to offer a bribe,and individual’s tolerance when the respondent decide whether to report corruption.For the explanatory factors,we investigate the effect of individual’s perception of corruption in the social environment,the definition of corruption,the experience of corruption,and the government’s anti-corruption.The characteristics of respondents,such as gender,education,age,location,income and political status,are all controlled.We use Ordinal Logistic model in the data analysis.

The main findings are as follows.For the tolerance of corruption,more than half of the respondents consider corruption undesirable.Only less than 30% of respondents view that corruption is somewhat acceptable.For the variance of tolerance,results of statistic analysis indicate different patterns for the two measurements of tolerance.First,individual’s decision of engaging corruption is mostly explained by the perception of social corruption,the definition of corruption and experience of corruption.The factor of government’s anti-corruption is not significant.Second,individual’s decision of reporting corruption is related with the government’s anti-corruption,definition of corruption and experience of offering bribe,and unrelated with the perception of social corruption.Third,for the control variables,females are less likely to tolerant corruption.Low-income and rural respondents are also less likely to offer a bribe.

The findings may interest those study the causes of corruption.It contributes a fresh view of the tolerance of corruption in contemporary China and a framework of explaining it.This research also sheds some lights on how to achieve a better outcome of anti-corruption by educating the public and fostering a social culture of zero-tolerance of corruption.

 

Key words:tolerance of corruption；interest-related; activity choice; public participation