Most of Russians say that minor bribery is a sign of organizational failure in general rather than a single briber’s amorality. But one should punish the guilty, not the superior.
MOSCOW, March 10, 2017. The Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VCIOM) presents the results of a survey describing Russian attitudes towards bribery among frontline workers and their superiors.
Respondents say that the corrupt practices by frontline staff result from poor organization of the company where they are employed (52%), rather than the faults of certain persons (42%); the share of respondents who think so is higher among young persons aged 18-24 (55%) and among those who highly assess their financial situation (51%).
The prevailing opinion in the public’s consciousness today suggests that the one who must take responsibility over bribery is the corrupt person and not the superiors (64%). Twenty-five percent of respondents propose to punish those guilty of an offence.
Respondents have ambiguous opinions on what kind of punishment should be imposed on front-line employees and their superiors: according to 50%, the punishment should be equal both for superiors and their subordinates convicted of bribery, but 42% say that the punishment for the subordinates should be softer.
The VCIOM survey was conducted on December 17-18, 2016, in 130 settlements, 46 regions and 8 federal districts of Russia. The sample size involved 1600 persons. The survey was conducted with multi-stage stratified sample based on general rule of walking and quotas at the final selection stage; the sample is representative of the Russian population aged 18 and over according to sex, age, education, type of settlement. The margin of error (taking into account the design effect) with 95% confidence interval does not exceed 3.5%. The survey method is community-based structured face-to-face interviews. Apart from the margin of error, minor changes in question wording and different circumstances arising during the field work should be taken into account.
Which statement do you most agree with? (closed-ended question, one answer, %) | ||||||
| Total respondents | Aged 18-24 | Aged 25-34 | Aged 35-44 | Aged 45-59 | 60 and over |
If frontline employees (traffic police officer, doctor at the hospital, school teacher) take bribes, it is their guilt and they are fully responsible for that | 42 | 55 | 45 | 41 | 40 | 36 |
If frontline employees take bribes, the reason for that is the poor organization in the company where they work | 52 | 41 | 47 | 53 | 55 | 55 |
Don’t know | 6 | 4 | 8 | 6 | 5 | 9 |
Which statement do you most agree with? (closed-ended question, one answer, %) | |
| Total respondents |
If a frontline employee was convicted of corruption, it is his responsibility | 64 |
If a frontline employee was convicted of corruption, it is the responsibility of his/her superior | 25 |
Don’t know | 11 |
Which statement do you most agree with? (closed-ended question, one answer, %) | ||||||
| Total respondents | Aged 18-24 | Aged 25-34 | Aged 35-44 | Aged 45-59 | 60 and over |
Frontline workers convicted of corruption crimes must be punished in the same way as corrupt superiors | 50 | 56 | 54 | 52 | 49 | 43 |
The punishment of the frontline workers convicted of corruption crimes should be softer than the punishment of the corrupt superiors | 42 | 37 | 38 | 40 | 45 | 48 |
Don’t know | 8 | 7 | 9 | 8 | 6 | 9 |
Note: Using materials from the site www.wciom.ru or wciom.com, as well as distributed by VCIOM, the reference to the source (or hyperlink for the electronic media) is obligatory!