CRITICALLY EXAMINING THE IMPACT OCORRUPTION ON THE AFRICAN...

CRITICALLY EXAMINING THE IMPACT OCORRUPTION ON THE AFRICAN ECONOMIES: PUBLIC COICE THEORY INTRODUCTION Africa is perceived as the `Eden garden` because of its abundant wealth in copper, aluminium, gold, diamond, crude oil, but it is one of the most underdeveloped regions world-wide due to corruption, which is a major constraint to wealth creation and African economic growth. Public choice is all about applying the methods of economics to the study of politics. Corruption can be resolved by incorporating insights from the theory of public choice into the design and execution of the new anti-corruption programs. The insights include the introduction of relevant rules, reforming existing laws and institutions, providing more effective and†¦show more content†¦The other one states that corruption enhances economic and political development, and according to the other, corruption is a significant constraint to development and modernization. Corruption has the ability to `grease` the wheels of bureaucracy making it more responsive to the private sector, thus increasing the abilit y of entrepreneurs to take part in wealth creating activities. Paying bribes to the right officials can provide deprived groups access to political markets hence improving their ability to participate in governance. As argued by Leff (1964:8) and the other scholars (e.g. Byley: 1966), corruption can be utilized to enhance the potential of entrepreneurs to gain access to government regulators and participate fully and effectively in public policy formulation and implementation. While corruption has made a few civil servants politicians and entrepreneurs rich, overall, it has started the creation of wealth and severely limited the government’s ability to deal effectively with poverty and deprivation. Corruption has failed to improve access to governance to many people in Africa, more especially to women, rural dwellers and those living an urban periphery. Its major accomplishment has been to provide resources to elites, enhancing their ability to monopolize political spaces and allocation of resources. APPROACHES TO CORRUPTION CONTROL: LESSON FROM PUBLIC CHOICE THEORY