Anti-corruption potential is rather high
Two-thirds of young respondents said they were prepared to report corrupt activity under the proper circumstances. A quarter of respondents are committed to doing so in any case, and only eleven per cent would not report it at all.
“The biggest obstacle for young people to report a corruption case is the notion that it will be meaningless, and no one will address the issue. They also lack information on how to do it and are uncertain in the view of public awareness,” the research concludes.
Among cultural reasons, there is a reluctance to be a whistleblower: almost 10% of young respondents relate the exposure of a corruption case to a betrayal or snitching.
“Due to our historical experience, when people were forced to ‘bypass’ the system or even consciously oppose it, society still tends to ignore the rules and very often does it to its advantage. This passivity and a reluctance to report wrongdoers is passed down from generation to generation, contributing to tolerating corruption,” says a co-author of the research, a lecturer at the Department of Business and Public Management of Šiauliai University, Dr Rita Toleikienė.
Lack of understanding of globally harmful effects of corruption
The research findings show that most young people are well aware of the harmful effects of corruption on national development (85%), business and economic development (82%), but only a small percentage understand its impact on them personally and their immediate environment.
This detached point of view might well be related to ‘double standards’ commonly applied to corruption: young people are able to identify and point out corruption in the field of public administration, but some of them tend to justify unfair behaviour if corrupt activities are beneficial for neutral population groups - employees or socially supported families.
“A key aspect affecting corruption tolerance among young people is the quest for a quick result because a quick result is one of the most important needs of this generation. Even at school, where the problem of cheating remains huge, students are encouraged to be result-orientated and get higher scores rather than focus on the process of obtaining knowledge. Moreover, cheating is a kind of corruption as well,” adds Ms Toleikienė.
Gender and income influence
Interestingly enough, in the analysed age groups, men are more likely to justify corruption than women. For example, the behaviour of a company manager who evades taxes and therefore pays higher wages to employees is justified by 38% of male and 25% of female respondents. 35% of men and 21% of women consider a bribe to a doctor or a nurse in the hope of better service as acceptable.
“An interesting pattern is also seen in the influence of the income level of young people’s families: young people who attribute their families to the upper class of society by their wealth and social status are more likely to accept corrupt behaviour than young people from the middle-class or low-income families. For example, the behaviour of a company manager who evades taxes and therefore pays higher wages to employees is justified by about 30% of youth stemming from middle-class or low-income families and 40% of young people belonging to the upper class,” explains the interviewer.
The lowest score of corruption tolerance is observed among older respondents - college and university students, as well as politically and socially active individuals.
“Although there are no comparative studies yet, according to the trends of research conducted in 2011 and 2018, the situation is gradually improving. I work with young people all the time and see that they are becoming more conscious. Their tolerance for corruption is diminishing, and for most of them it is hard to imagine the reasoning behind a bribe in one situation or another - it is a completely different reality,” says Ms Toleikienė, pointing out that the fight against corruption should be tackled by addressing multiple causes of corruption tolerance.
The fight against corruption is encouraged by the National Civic Youth Awards ‘Our Fatherland’ (lit. Tėvyne mūsų) which have been arranged for several consecutive years. Over 2,500 applications were received in two stages of the awards, and as many as 55 civic initiatives were presented. Find more information on the project and initiatives in the platform of the National Civic Youth Awards ‘Our Fatherland’ under www.tevynemusu.lt.
