Freedom Through Corruption?

How Public Sector Bribery Sustains

Civic Networks in Russia

Tuesday, October, 15, 2024

4:00 - 5:00 pm

Elliott School of International Affairs

1957 E St. NW

Voesar Conference Room 412

In the Global North, corruption is viewed as incompatible with civic health. Scholars, for example, argue that corruption decreases social trust, atomizes communities, and discourages active citizenship. In contrast, this talk draws on a new study of authoritarian regimes to examine how corruption may be linked to increased political participation for ordinary citizens. Drawing on a 2018 nationally representative survey from Russia, Marina Zaloznaya also investigates how networks fostering corruption affect the informal spaces for civic connectivity and free political expression. Counterintuitively, in non-democracies, public sector corruption may be symbiotic with, rather than opposed to, civic life.

Speaker

Marina Zaloznaya is an associate professor of sociology, criminology, and political science at the University of Iowa, where she has been since earning her PhD in Sociology from Northwestern University in 2012. She also serves as the Director of European Studies and the Executive Director of the Corruption in the Global South Research Network. Dr. Zaloznaya's research focuses on the political dimensions, gender patterns, and network properties of public sector corruption in non-democratic regimes, employing various methodological approaches. Her next book, *Bribes, People, and Politics in Eurasia*, is set to be published by Michigan University Press in 2025.