The Culture of Corruption: Theoretical Concept Construct

This article presents the author’s concept of the culture of corruption as a social phenomenon.An attempt is made to categorise the functional, structural, behavioural, and other aspects of thecontent of the phenomenon under study. As a result, this paper formed and instrumentally updatedthe theoretical, methodological and conceptual basis of the scientific analysis of the corrupt culture insocial theory. The main processes of the institutionalisation of corruption, its identification as a socialand cultural phenomenon, are the processes of legitimation and ritualisation of corrupt practices, whichare classifiable in simulation of formal social practices. As a consequence of this situation, corruptioncreates an environment that starts to regulate social relations in the society. In particular, as a resultof theoretical studies, the author’s definition of the concept of a culture of corruption, as well as itsfeatures as defined in Russia, have suggested the integration of these criminal phenomena as a nationaltradition of corruption, in which the corruption organisational model of culture is responsible for thedestruction of the institutional organisation of society. Based on the results of this study, the authorformed the model of the functional structure of corrupt culture and the mechanisms of its formationin terms of anomie value-normative space in Russian society. Corruption, being itself a generic form ofa certain type of social relations, has a wide range of typical variants of its representation, for example,in accordance with the specific institutional loci of the corrupt relations in a socio-cultural environment.In these cases, the value and normative components of corrupt practices are also based on the specificsof the matrix of values ​​and norms of the institution of localisation. Thus, in Russia, corruption asa social phenomenon with a specific value-normative content is extended in the chronological contextof the social perspective as a compensatory, complex dysfunctional anomie sociocultural system froma national tradition of organising the economy and production, the specifics of the social psychology ofthe population and its occupational groups. There is a phenomenon of alternative corruption againstthe official law. That phenomenon is identified by two institutions regulating their formal relations,operating in parallel, where each process is accompanied by the implementation of formal socialpractices through their own methods – legal or criminal (corruption).

Culture corruption, corruption, corruption risks, institutional structure, socialritual legitimation, criminal practice