Public tolerance of corruption: Romania in the European context
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Bogdan Ivan [1]
| Abstract: The article identifies the Romanian specificity of corruption tolerance in the European context, through a secondary analysis of Eurobarometer 97.2 conducted in 2022. The EB 97.2 data support the findings of previous studies on higher tolerance of corruption among young people. In the case of Romania, there is a clear differentiation between the 15- to 24-year-old generation and the other generations, which share a similar and lower level of tolerance. At the level of the overall EU27 population, corruption tolerance is positively and most strongly associated with the experience of corruption in the health system, and then with the cumulative experience of corruption, the mediated experience of corruption and, with a small coefficient in intensity, with the perception of the extent of corruption. In Romania, however, it is the experience of corruption in the healthcare system that has the highest correlation coefficient with the tolerance of corruption in comparison to the other EU27 countries, and the level of this experience is also the highest in Romania. Overall, the previously documented positive associations between experience of corruption, perception of corruption, and tolerance of corruption are also confirmed in this study. Still, the negative association between corruption tolerance and the perception of the prevalence and evolution of corruption is also remarkable in the case of Romania, which is atypical in the context of other EU countries, indicating a possible feedback loop in which citizens react negatively to the perception of high corruption. Keywords: Corruption tolerance; Perception of corruption; Experience of corruption; Eurobarometer, Secondary analysis; |
[1] Doctoral School of Sociology, University of Bucharest, Romania, bogdan.ivangruia@gmail.com.