198.2
Factors of Tolerance Towards Corruption
Both according to experts and according to public opinion polls corruption is the main problem of Ukraine along with occupation of the territories Donbas and Crimea. Intolerance to corruption in society is one of the main factors of its combatting. On the one hand, perception of importance of corruption problem among Ukrainian population is increasing. According to public opinion surveys of residents of Ukraine conducted for IRI by GfK Ukraine and funded by USAID in 2017 Ukrainians for the first time since 2014 assigned the same importance to the problem of corruption as to Donbas war problem: in June 2017 51% of Ukrainians named corruption and 50% named Donbas war among three top problems of Ukraine while in previous surveys in 2014, 2015 and 2016 corruption problem was perceived as significantly less important than Donbas war. On the other hand, according to recent survey conducted for the USAID New Justice Program 46% of respondents believe that corruption is an integral part of the political life of Ukraine and it’s useless to fight it (vs 40% of those who do not agree with this). Moreover, 20% of Ukrainians are even not ashamed to say that they will consider giving a bribe to the judge in case of receiving correspondent offer - considering the sensitivity of this question and 27% of “hard to say” answers the real share of such citizens in significantly higher.
By analyzing the results of recent population surveys in Ukraine the paper will address the questions: 1) what is the relation between individual social position, corruption experience in local public institutions and tolerance to corruption? 2) what are the main factors which motivate people not to give bribes and report about corruption offers?