There is not any single widely accepted definition of corruption and the term has been
used in variable contexts. The most prominent definitions emphasize the abuse of public
power or position for personal benefit. This definition out-rules private-to-private
corruption. It can be argued that leaving the private-to-private sector out is artificial,
because the effects on the economy are very much the same in spite of the actual process
where corruption is taking place. Tilleke & Gibbins International assume that the
definition, which places the public sector at the centre, is so wide-spread, because the
harms of private-to-private corruption have not been acknowledged as well as the public
corruption, until recently, although it has always been present too /1/.
Both of the above interpretations are deficient. As I will show you in this research paper,
there is one more important aspect that should be included to the definition of corruption.
I would like to call it “corruption through personal financial power”. As the examples of
Thailand and Italy show, a politician (or any holder of any public office), can reduce
transparency of the decision making process considerably by using his personal assets for
gaining more power. An example of this is buying big shares of media companies and by
doing this force them into self-censorship. This is illegal neither in Europe nor in
Thailand, but it is clearly against the values of a democratic society and should be
addressed properly in the future. I will get back to this, when considering the difficulties
of fighting corruption in Thailand.
In this study, we will concentrate on the public corruption and the further use of word
corruption refers to this. This does not mean that I would consider private-to-private
corruption any less important, it is just to reduce the scope of this research.