Citizens and Business Corruption: Challenges before Collective Capability

Abstract

Corruption enables private gains for public purposes, violates democracy, and incapacitates the majority of people. Though under-discussed, business or corporate corruption rather flourishes from governments’ various omissions and commissions. The field-responses in several parts of West Bengal, India reveal that people have sound understanding of both business and government corruption, but their individual efforts are too inadequate in countering corruption. Still, such awareness; and people’s continued interest in politics sets the context before collective capability: by non-violent means, people need to use the state’s space for asserting empowerment and agency; and revitalize the regulatory agencies, as countervailing forces for strengthening democracy’s space against corruption.

Keywords:

• Business
• capability
• corruption
• democracy
• government

Acknowledgments

In addition of several unknown respondents for their unconditional support, I am also grateful to Dipankar Sinha, Pinaki Das and the two anonymous Reviewers of Public Integrity for their useful feedback. The usual disclaimer applies.

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1 After field studies were completed, this author personally experienced technological manipulations, on attempts to lodge service-related complaints with a government office: the details entered were being frequently erased; and in some cases, were appearing different from the options that were originally entered. Having spent 3 h on June 10, 2021 for that one-page effort, I was denied making complaint on the ground that the service was availed before 90 days; whereas in fact, it was availed on May 31, 2021. For people having little or no technical expertise, it is extremely difficult to counter such malpractices.