Week 1: What is Corruption?
Philip Nichols
Corruption affects us all and millions of people around the world protest against it every day. What is corruption? How do we know it when we see it? This module is designed to give you an understanding of both the definition and the key components of corruption. You’ll learn about the general and legal definitions of corruption, how to measure it using the Corruptions Perceptions Index, examine the history of corruption, and evaluate where corruption takes place in the world. You'll also learn three major theories that attempt to explain the current "Eruption in Corruption" that we are facing today. By the end of this module, you’ll be able to explain what corruption is, how it is measured, the costs of corruption, and how corruption spreads so that you can begin identifying and measuring corruption where it affects you.
Key Concepts
Define Corruption
Breakdown How Corruption is Measured
Explain How Corruption Spreads
Video Lectures:
1.1 Introduction (5 mins)
1.2 What is Corruption? (13 mins)
1.3 How Much Corruption? (14 mins)
1.4 How Did Corruption Spread? (14 mins)
Quiz:
Week 1: Introduction to Corruption Quiz (10 Questions)
Readings: (10 mins)
Week 2: Societal Level Effects
Philip Nichols
In this module, you'll explore the extensive effects of corruption, including its economic, social and psychological costs. You'll learn how corruption leads to the informal creation of parallel institutions, such as loansharking and black markets, and see the role decision-makers play in enabling the spread of corruption. You'll also learn how trust is jeopardized, and how this loss of trust inhibits economic and social development. You'll examine the social costs of corruption, including decreases in the quality of infrastructure and in environmental quality, increases in terrorism and infant mortality, and other threats to human security. At the end of this module, you'll be able to outline the comprehensive effects of corruption so that you can determine strategies for addressing them.
Key Concepts
Classify effects of corruption
Distinguish social costs of corruption
Recognize how corruption erodes trust in various organizations
Video Lectures:
2.1 Societal Level Effects (15 mins)
2.2 Decision Makers (9 mins)
2.3 Corruption and Trust (8 mins)
2.4 Corruption Hurts (15 mins)
Quiz:
Week 2: Corruption Within Society Quiz (10 Questions)
Readings: (20 mins)
Week 3: Individual Firm Level Effects
Philip Nichols
This module was designed to help you explore the ethics behind corruption through external and internal relationships. You'll learn about the time and monetary costs of corruption, perspectives on the benefits of bribery, and the characteristics of a strong ethical climate. You'll also learn how to identify indirect costs of corruption, including those that are easy to predict, like fines and settlements, and those which are harder to quantify, such as effects on an individual's reputation. At the end of this module, you'll be able to define corruption as part of a relationship, outline the costs of corruption on those relationships, and categorize the sanctions, both predictable and unpredictable, imposed on corrupt entities.
Key Concepts
Evaluate the relationship between corruption and ethics
Explain the costs of corruption
Differentiate between indirect and direct costs of corruption
3.1 Time and Money (9 mins)
3.2 Relationships (10 mins)
3.3 Indirect Costs (16 mins)
3.4 Sanctions (18 mins)
Quiz:
Week 3: Costs of Corruption (10 Questions)
Week 4: Corruption Control
Philip Nichols
In this module, you will learn the main theories about control of corruption. You'll explore whether or not corruption can be controlled. Then, you'll examine the different ways corruption can be controlled: firms, industries, and polities (organized societies). You'll learn about assurance problems, platforms for exchange, and certification programs as some methods of control. You'll look at the steps organized societies have taken to control corruption, including the example of a country that used to have the cleanest government in the world. By the end of this course, you will be able to apply the principles you’ve learned by assessing the work of your peers in a Peer Review assignment. You'll create a Corruption Analysis in which you identify and analyze a real-life incident of corruption that has occurred anywhere in the world over the past 12-18 months.
Key Concepts
Define theories about control of corruption
Compare organized societies corruption control methods
Evaluate a real-life incident of corruption.
4.1 Theories of Control (18 mins)
4.2 Control by Firms (24 mins)
4.3 Control by Industries (21 mins)
4.4 Control by Polities (14 mins)
Peer-graded Assignment:
Week 4: Course Peer Review (2h)
Review Your Peers:
Week 4: Course Peer Review
In this course, you’ve learned that corruption is a worldwide problem that many believe has increased since the 1980s and 1990s. Incidents of governmental or business corruption are covered in the international press on a daily basis.
In Week 4, you now have the chance to apply some of the principles you’ve learned and assess the work of your peers in this course.
Your task is to create a Corruption Analysis in which you identify and analyze a real-life incident of corruption that has occurred anywhere in the world over the past 12-18 months. The incident of corruption you choose could be an ongoing scandal or a more discrete event. Examples of the kinds of incidents of corruption that could be used for this assignment are discussed in this article (note: the article is from 2011, so these examples shouldn’t be used for your Corruption Analysis unless there has been some notable development in the last 12-18 months).
Please find attached the step-by-step instructions for the project work.Also, note that you will grade your peers and you will be graded by them too. The rubrics are in the attached file.