Corruption and social responsibility: bribe offers among small entrepreneurs in Azerbaijan

Abstract

The literature on corruption concentrates exclusively on bribe demands by bureaucrats and does not analyse bribe offers by citizens. Building on theoretical propositions from socio-cultural theories of corruption, this article uses the logistic regression method to test whether lower social responsibility translates into higher rates of bribe offers by small and medium entrepreneurs in Azerbaijan. Based on a survey of 611 respondents, the research analyses social pro-activism of businessmen. The study contends that infrequent community participation, the lack of choice to avoid bribe demands, and a higher share of monthly profit that the respondents are ready to spend on the acquisition of markers of “status” translate into a higher probability of bribe offers. The research suggests that in order to be successful in fighting corruption, the Azerbaijani government should, in addition to bribe demands, also focus on bribe offers. Social activism of entrepreneurs provides clues for success in fighting bribe offers, and corruption in general.

Keywords:

• post-communist transition
• small and medium entrepreneurs
• bribe offers and bribe demand
• Azerbaijan
• social pro-activism and responsibility
• corruption

Notes on contributor

Turkhan Sadigov is a PhD student at the department of Political Science, the State University of New York at Albany. His interests include the analysis of corruption through citizen perspective, the effect of political culture, specifically citizen pro-activism, on the development of political institutions in the post-Soviet societies.

Notes

1 For a more detailed discussion of Harrison's framework, see his Pan American Dream (1997).

2 In order to obtain a representative sample of respondents, the research sampling reflected the relative weight of SME by location (in Azerbaijan and within the chosen city), business sector, year of foundation, annual turnover, and legal form (individual entrepreneurs versus small enterprises). The sampling was framed according to official data of the State Statistical Committee of the Republic of Azerbaijan, as well as IFC data. Detailed sampling information is available from the author upon request.