Originally Posted by
T28B
NotAsAMod:
Does the parallel structure of "president for life" between Russia (Putin) and China (Xi) inform the military corruption aspect, or is that coincidence?
That is an interesting question. Russia has always had a corruption issue at the top of the committee, an argument could be made that it has been pervasive since Tzarist times. Soviet military corruption was a topic of interest back in the early 90s. [1] Soviet corruption in the military during WW2 would seem to be more opportunistic than the hierarchical form that exists today, more of the stealing of radios, etc [2], rather than the falsification of stores expenditures that is prevalent in Russia and the PLA, PLAN, and PLAF today. When a soldier can spend 3.5 million in a bribe to get a promotion, there may be a problem When generals have accumulated over 3.2 Billion in personal wealth, when their young daughters own mansions, not from inherited wealth, that came from somewhere, and it has left a hole.
Xi is presented as an anti-corruption leader, one at odds with the extensive senior officer corps that is involved in corrupt practices, yet his family and Xi have managed to salt away vast fortunes as well. The actions of prior premiers of China made it almost inevitable that corruption would become widespread in the military when the PLA was obliged to hold cake stalls for their missiles, (40% of funding had to be self-sourced... ) which led to opportunity.
Authoritarian govts do appear to lend themselves to corrupt practices, however, it appears that they also preclude some avenues of corruption that occur in more liberal societies [3]. What seems to arise is corruption within components of the govt that have a steep power gradient, like the military.
[1] Vallance, J., (2007). Corruption and Reform in the Soviet Military,
J. Slavic Military studies. 7(4), 703-724
[2]
Merridale, C. (2006). Culture, Ideology and Combat in the Red Army, 1939-45. Journal of Contemporary History, 41(2), 305–324. http://www.jstor.org/stable/30036388
[3]
Zaloznaya, M. (2015). Does Authoritarianism Breed Corruption? Reconsidering the Relationship Between Authoritarian Governance and Corrupt Exchanges in Bureaucracies. Law & Social Inquiry,40(2), 345-376. doi:10.1111/lsi.12076