Article

 

The Changing Contours of Corruption in Russia: Informal Intermediaries in State-Business Relations (p.61-82)

by

Olimpieva Irina , St. Petersburg Center for Independent Social Research

Keywords : Corruption, Small business, Informality, Intermediaries, Russia

JEL classification : Z13

Abstract

Despite extensive academic and media discussion about corruption in Russia, there has been little analysis of how the corruption process works and what makes it so deeply entrenched. One reason is that the notion of corruption is often used as an umbrella term to cover a variety of fundamentally different phenomena that have one formal feature in common – using an official position to gain private profit. Often overlooked in the discussion is the fact that the corruption market is constantly changing, not only in terms of the scale and volume of corruption (which is almost impossible to measure), but, more importantly, in terms of substantial changes in its forms, mechanisms and content, and the emergence of new informal actors and even institutions. There are constantly emerging new forms of informal interactions, along with new actors – informal intermediaries – which facilitate a variety of informal relationships in the business sphere. This paper provides an empirically-based sociological analysis of the phenomenon of informal intermediaries and of the “intermediaries’ boom” – an explosive growth of intermediaries recently transforming the Russian business environment using data from a study of small and medium business in St. Petersburg. The emergence and institutionalization of informal mediating is considered a new stage in the evolution of corruption in state-business relations in Russia.