Documentos de Académico
Documentos de Profesional
Documentos de Cultura
127
Cómo citar
Ruiz-Lorenzo, Valeria (2022). «De las microconductas desviadas a la corrupción política en
España». Revista Española de Investigaciones Sociológicas, 177: 127-142. (doi: 10.5477/cis/
reis.177.127)
Reis. Rev.Esp.Investig.Sociol. ISSN-L: 0210-5233. N.º 177, Enero - Marzo 2022, pp. 127-142
128 De las microconductas desviadas a la corrupción política en España
Power tends to corrupt and absolute power percepciones pueden influir en el compor-
corrupts absolutely. tamiento de manera significativa: por ejem-
Lord Acton, 1887. plo, si creemos que a nuestro alrededor hay
personas que tienen un comportamiento
corrupto, eso puede hacernos más propen-
Introducción sos a adoptar esas prácticas nosotros mis-
mos». Este macrofenómeno no puede ser
En la última década se ha procedido al mayor tratado e interpretado solo desde una pers-
destape de corrupción política en la historia pectiva jurídica, es un asunto transversal
de España: según las cifras del CGPJ, solo que abarca múltiples aspectos: social, eco-
desde septiembre de 2015 a marzo de 2019 nómico, político y cultural. En su origen y
se ha aperturado juicio oral a 1.835 acusados expansión existe un sustrato cultural previo
procesados por delitos de corrupción. Por su que puede verse influido por una ética eco-
propia naturaleza delictiva, conocer su mag- nómica premoderna y una desconfianza in-
nitud real es inabarcable, solo existen ciertas terpersonal e institucional (Lamo, 1997).
cifras negras estimadas que, frecuentemente, Este artículo se va a centrar en la toleran-
suelen infravalorar la realidad. cia de la población española hacia la corrup-
La corrupción política no es un problema ción y en las pautas culturales que pueden
local. El Informe Global de Transparencia In- influir en su percepción, es decir, cómo la
ternacional sobre corrupción de 2004 con- percepción de microconductas desviadas de
cluye que «ningún país en el mundo es in- bajo nivel punitivo —tales como sanciones
mune a la corrupción política. El problema normativas— influyen en la percepción de
abarca una variedad de actos cometidos por conductas a gran escala de corrupción polí-
líderes políticos antes, durante o después de tica al uso: «¿Existe una relación directa?».
dejar el cargo». Es un lastre para el desarrollo
económico y social de la sociedad mundial,
como señaló Jim Yong Kim, presidente del Marco teórico
Banco Mundial (2016). Según el barómetro
Conceptualización de conceptos claves en
del CIS de mayo de 2019 (Estudio n.º 3247),
la multidimensionalidad de la corrupción
el 8,2% de la población percibe la corrupción
y el fraude como primer problema de España; Huntington (1972: 63), define la «corrupción»
el 17,9% como el segundo. Entre los colecti- como «una desviación de la conducta de un
vos, el peor situado es el de los políticos con funcionario público, que se aparta de las nor-
un 93,0% (Estudio nº 3143, 2016), cuya con- mas establecidas para ponerse al servicio de
fianza, a su vez, es la más baja entre los dis- intereses privados». Se deduce de este sig-
tintos grupos/instituciones que se proponen, nificado que, para la existencia de una con-
donde la media se sitúa en una puntuación ducta corrupta, es conditio sine qua non, una
de 3,19 sobre 10 puntos. norma jurídica previa que establezca sus lí-
Esta idea de la corrupción como arraigo mites. Todo marco jurídico viene dado por
cultural parece ser vox populi: la sociedad es unas normas y unos valores sociales —escri-
consciente de ella. Según el estudio n.º 3221 tos o no— que guían su ordenamiento, por lo
del CIS (2018) el 22,4% de la población cree tanto, es lógico pensar que cultura y jurisdic-
que la principal razón por la cual las perso- ción son congruentes; es decir, en última ins-
nas ocultan sus bienes o sus ingresos a Ha- tancia, la ley es un reflejo de los valores de
cienda es «la falta de honradez y conciencia nuestra sociedad —ahí radican las diferen-
ciudadana». Según Andersson y Heywood cias normativas entre países—. En otras pala-
(2009: 7), «esto es importante porque las bras, «la corrupción política es, ante todo, un
Reis. Rev.Esp.Investig.Sociol. ISSN-L: 0210-5233. N.º 177, Enero - Marzo 2022, pp. 127-142
Valeria Ruiz-Lorenzo 129
Reis. Rev.Esp.Investig.Sociol. ISSN-L: 0210-5233. N.º 177, Enero - Marzo 2022, pp. 127-142
130 De las microconductas desviadas a la corrupción política en España
Arreglos: Un agente
Colusión privada en Uso de información
público toma una de-
concursos o convo- privilegiada para
cisión pública que fa-
Soborno Extorsión catorias públicas: se tomar decisiones
vorece a un ciudadano
acuerdan niveles mí- económicas o so-
privado a cambio de
nimos de subasta. ciales privadas.
una recompensa.
Parcialidad en la apli-
Alteraciones fraudulentas del mercado: el
Especulación cación de normas,
Malversaciones agente público que decide en materias que
financiera con administración o cual-
y fraudes de mercado utiliza su decisión para perjudicar
fondos públicos. quier tipo de decisión
o beneficiar a un tercero, sin base objetiva.
deliberada.
Fuente: Laporta (1997).
Reis. Rev.Esp.Investig.Sociol. ISSN-L: 0210-5233. N.º 177, Enero - Marzo 2022, pp. 127-142
Valeria Ruiz-Lorenzo 131
Reis. Rev.Esp.Investig.Sociol. ISSN-L: 0210-5233. N.º 177, Enero - Marzo 2022, pp. 127-142
132 De las microconductas desviadas a la corrupción política en España
Reis. Rev.Esp.Investig.Sociol. ISSN-L: 0210-5233. N.º 177, Enero - Marzo 2022, pp. 127-142
Valeria Ruiz-Lorenzo 133
Reis. Rev.Esp.Investig.Sociol. ISSN-L: 0210-5233. N.º 177, Enero - Marzo 2022, pp. 127-142
134 De las microconductas desviadas a la corrupción política en España
Tabla 1. Frecuencias, media y desviación típica de percepción de corrupción en los políticos
Aparcar el coche en doble fila. 30,5% 15,4% 17,2% 25,0% 8,8% 3,1% 1,75 1,481
Reis. Rev.Esp.Investig.Sociol. ISSN-L: 0210-5233. N.º 177, Enero - Marzo 2022, pp. 127-142
Valeria Ruiz-Lorenzo 135
Tabla 3. Frecuencias, media y desviación típica en la percepción de conductas de corrupción política
Con una tendencia muy similar a la an- que más correlacionaban entre sí. Se puede
terior, esta dimensión vuelve a ser bastante comprobar cómo la mayoría de respuestas
lineal, exceptuando la variable «Que un se concentran en la posición más extrema:
político/a use su coche oficial para sus des- «Claramente es un acto de corrupción * To-
plazamientos privados», cuya distribución de talmente injustificable». Se ha usado el es-
respuestas está más diversificada y su me- tadístico chi-cuadrado como coeficiente de
dia es bastante más alta que el resto (1,7). contingencia para comprobar si estas va-
En general, los valores de la media fluctúan riables son independientes entre sí, pero se
entre 1-1,7 y de la desviación típica entre rechaza la H0: en base a los siguientes re-
0,3-1, lo que implica que los valores están sultados podemos afirmar que ambas va-
concentrados en las categorías «Claramente riables están relacionadas entre sí. Existe
es un acto de corrupción» y «Creo que es un una relación en el grado de tolerancia hacia
acto de corrupción, pero no estoy seguro». las microconductas desviadas y hacia las
Observados los datos arrojados por conductas de corrupción política.
las tablas 2 y 3, podemos concluir que se
acepta la 2.ª hipótesis: existe una baja tole- Sig. asintótica = g.l = 15 α = 0,05 Valor χ² =
rancia hacia las conductas desviadas. 0,000 52,014
Reis. Rev.Esp.Investig.Sociol. ISSN-L: 0210-5233. N.º 177, Enero - Marzo 2022, pp. 127-142
136 De las microconductas desviadas a la corrupción política en España
Tabla 4. Tabla de contingencia: No declarar todos los ingresos en el impuesto sobre la renta (IRPF)
Totalmente
46,0% 6,80% 1,9% 0,6% 55,2%
injustificable
1 16,4% 3,60% 1,2% 0,1% 21,4%
No declarar todos
los ingresos en el 2 7,7% 1,60% 0,9% 0,3% 10,6%
impuesto sobre la 3 6,3% 1,60% 0,9% 0,2% 9,1%
renta (IRPF) 4 1,6% 0,21% 0,1% 0,0% 2,0%
Totalmente
1,4% 0,10% 0,1% 0,1% 1,8%
justificable
Que un político/a, funcionario/a o empleado/a público acepte dinero Arrojar basura o desperdicios en un lugar
de una empresa para favorecerla. público.
Que un político/a, funcionario/a o empleado/a público/a reciba dinero No declarar todos los ingresos en el im-
por recalificar un terreno. puesto sobre la renta (IRPF).
Que un empleado de la Admón. pública pida a un ciudadano/a que Fingir una enfermedad para conseguir una
pague una cantidad de dinero para agilizar trámites. baja temporal en el trabajo.
Que un político/a use su coche oficial para sus desplazamientos pri- Utilizar recetas de un pensionista para con-
vados. seguir medicamentos gratuitamente.
Reis. Rev.Esp.Investig.Sociol. ISSN-L: 0210-5233. N.º 177, Enero - Marzo 2022, pp. 127-142
Valeria Ruiz-Lorenzo 137
Previo al paso final, antes de aplicar la mos en la siguiente tabla, una correlación
regresión lineal simple entre los indicado- de Pearson para ver su nivel de asociación,
res objeto de estudio —microconductas cuyo resultado es un pvalor 0,412, corrobo-
desviadas y conductas de corrupción po- rándose así la relación existente entre am-
lítica—, se ha realizado, como visualizare- bos.
Reis. Rev.Esp.Investig.Sociol. ISSN-L: 0210-5233. N.º 177, Enero - Marzo 2022, pp. 127-142
138 De las microconductas desviadas a la corrupción política en España
Tabla 7. Regresión lineal indicador microconductas desviadas-indicador conductas corrupción política
Reis. Rev.Esp.Investig.Sociol. ISSN-L: 0210-5233. N.º 177, Enero - Marzo 2022, pp. 127-142
Valeria Ruiz-Lorenzo 139
Tabla 8. Regresión lineal con capital social como variable de control
R
Modelo de R cuadrado Error típ. de la
R cuadrado
regresión CAPITALSOCIAL <= 5,00 CAPITALSOCIAL > 5,00 corregida estimación
(Seleccionado) (No seleccionado)
Reis. Rev.Esp.Investig.Sociol. ISSN-L: 0210-5233. N.º 177, Enero - Marzo 2022, pp. 127-142
140 De las microconductas desviadas a la corrupción política en España
Reis. Rev.Esp.Investig.Sociol. ISSN-L: 0210-5233. N.º 177, Enero - Marzo 2022, pp. 127-142
Valeria Ruiz-Lorenzo 141
Recepción: 18/02/2020
Revisión: 14/10/2020
Aprobación: 21/01/2021
Reis. Rev.Esp.Investig.Sociol. ISSN-L: 0210-5233. N.º 177, Enero - Marzo 2022, pp. 127-142
doi:10.5477/cis/reis.177.127
Citation
Ruiz-Lorenzo, Valeria (2022). “From Deviant Microbehavior to Political Corruption in Spain”. Revista
Española de Investigaciones Sociológicas, 177: 127-142. (doi: 10.5477/cis/reis.177.127)
Reis. Rev.Esp.Investig.Sociol. ISSN-L: 0210-5233. N.º 177, January - March 2022, pp. 127-142
128 From Deviant Microbehavior to Political Corruption in Spain
Power tends to corrupt and absolute power cording to study no. 3221 of the CIS (2018),
corrupts absolutely. 22.4% of the country’s citizens believe that:
Lord Acton, 1887. the main reason why people hide their as-
sets or income from the Public Treasury is
Introduction “a lack of honesty and civic awareness”.
Andersson and Heywood (2009: 7) stated
Over the past decade, Spain has experi- that “this is important because the percep-
enced the greatest uncovering of political tions may significantly influence behavior:
corruption in its history. According to fig- for example, if we believe that there are
ures from the General Council of the Judi- people around us behaving corruptly, this
ciary Branch (CGPJ), between September may make us more likely to adopt these be-
2015 and March 2019, hearings were held haviors ourselves”. This macrophenomenon
for 1,835 individuals accused of commit- should not be treated and interpreted from
ting crimes of corruption. Given the criminal only a legal perspective. It is a cross-cut-
nature of these crimes, it is virtually impos- ting issue involving numerous aspects: so-
sible to establish their true magnitude. Only cial, economic, political and cultural ones.
estimates have been made, most of which There is an underlying cultural foundation
are likely to underestimate the true impact in its origin and expansion that may be in-
of these crimes. fluenced by pre-modern economic ethics
Political corruption is not only a local is- and interpersonal and institutional distrust
sue, as concluded by the 2004 Global Re- (Lamo, 1997).
port of Transparency International on cor- This article focuses on the Spanish pop-
ruption, which stated that “no country in the ulation’s tolerance for corruption and the
world is immune to political corruption. The cultural patterns that may influence the per-
problem consists of numerous acts com- ception of the same. In other words, how
mitted by political leaders before, during the perception of mildly punished deviant
or after leaving their position”. It creates a microbehavior —such as regulatory sanc-
substantial burden on the economic and tions— influence the perception of large-
social development of the global society scale political corruption: Does a direct re-
(Yong, President of the World Bank, 2016). lationship exist?
According to the Spanish Center for Socio-
logical Research (CIS) barometer from May
2019 (study no. 3247), 8.2% of the Span- Theoretical framework
ish population perceives corruption and
fraud as being the number one problem in Conceptualization of key concepts in the
this country. According to 17.9% of the sur- multi-dimensionality of corruption
veyed individuals, it is the country’s second
largest problem. Politicians are perceived Huntington (1972: 63) defined corruption
the worst of all groups with regard to this is- as “a behavioral deviation carried out by
sue, at 93.0% (study no. 3143, 2016). They a public official that diverges from the es-
are considered to be the least trustworthy tablished rules in order to serve private in-
of the distinct groups/institutions proposed, terests”. From this definition, it may be de-
receiving an average score of 3.19 out of 10 duced that in order for corrupt behavior to
points. exist, it is necessary for a prior legal frame-
Corruption as a deep-rooted problem in work to exist which establishes its limits. All
society appears to be vox populi: the pop- legal frameworks are made up of rules and
ulation is well aware of its existence. Ac- social values, either written or not, which
Reis. Rev.Esp.Investig.Sociol. ISSN-L: 0210-5233. N.º 177, January - March 2022, pp. 127-142
Valeria Ruiz-Lorenzo 129
guide their structuring. Therefore, it is logi- According to past studies, the concept of
cal to consider that culture and jurisdiction “social capital” (reviewed by Putnam, 1995:
are congruent. Ultimately, the law is a re- 67) is inversely related to the levels of cor-
flection of society’s values and therefore, ruption, defined as “the characteristics of the
distinct rules govern distinct countries. “Po- social organization, such as networks, rules
litical corruption is, above all, an issue of and trust, which facilitate coordination and
social ethics” (Jiménez, 1997: 139) and the cooperation for a mutual benefit”.
citizens’ tolerance of the same may be bi- The internalization of rules to support co-
ased by the distinct scopes of its context: existence, networks, horizontal orientation
social, political, legal and economic, as well and relationships based on interpersonal
as by their own experiences. The combina- trust and reciprocity facilitates cohesion and
tion of these factors is referred to as “cul- results in social and democratic improve-
ture” (Cameron et al., 2005). For this sociol- ment. A society having a strong social capi-
ogy-based analysis, we focus on an intrinsic tal will be more fair and just, less individualis-
approach: cultural-relational. tic and, therefore, less tolerant of crimes that
From the previous definitions, a variety endanger the common wellbeing. On the
of common elements characterizing corrup- other hand, a society with a weaker social
tion may be established: deviant behaviors capital, with a higher level of corruption, will
serving specific interests based on a posi- be more individualist and will have a weaker
tion that is subject to the possession of a collective consciousness due to its weak-
public power spectrum that directly affects ened ties, decreased interpersonal trust and
society and goes against social morality —a poorer social cohesion. Fukuyama (1998: 43)
process of civic behaviors between the in- defined “trust” as an expectation arising in a
dividual and society that is applied to the community with honest, orderly and coop-
duty to manage the public through distinct eration-based behavior that is founded on
agents and institutions serving the same, rules shared by all of its members.
directed at the common good and collec-
Since institutional trust is strongly re-
tive interest—. The social morality existing
lated to interpersonal trust and both of
in the public sector is known as “public eth-
these variables are related to corruption, it
ics”: “the science considering the morality
is logical that a positive correlation will exist
of human acts as carried out by public offi-
between low levels of intersubjective trust
cials” (Rodríguez-Arana, 1998: 6).
and the perception of corruption. Thus, low
So, what is this so-called “deviation”? It is levels of trust between citizens –a trait that
an attitude that may be considered criminal, has been evident in Spain ever since this
given society’s response to it. It is not only variable has been measured- may clearly
a quality but also a process involving the re- affect the perception of corruption and vice
sponse of others. It depends on both the spe- versa (Villoria, 2015).
cific moment when it is perpetrated as well
as the individual carrying it out. Ultimately,
whether or not an act is considered deviant Nature and types. From the individual to
depends on its nature and the response of the cultural approach
others (Becker, 2014). Given the high percep-
tion of political corruption in Spain, corrupt After generically defining and conceptualiz-
behaviors in this area are, without a doubt, ing the previous concepts, we will now con-
identified as deviant. But does a permissive sider how acts of corruption are considered
culture exist for other everyday microbehav- de facto. Laporta (1997) created an outline
iors that can be defined as deviant? of the main corruption practices:
Reis. Rev.Esp.Investig.Sociol. ISSN-L: 0210-5233. N.º 177, January - March 2022, pp. 127-142
130 From Deviant Microbehavior to Political Corruption in Spain
Arrangements: A pub-
Private collusion in The use of privi-
lic official makes a
public tenders or leged information
public decision that
Bribery Extortion competitions: estab- to make private
favors a private citizen
lishing minimum bid economic or social
in exchange for some
levels. decisions.
sort of compensation.
Upon reviewing the existing bibliography cused on the psychosocial aspects of the
on this area, it is evident that most of the individual and his/her environment, based
theory is based on an individualist concept on the concept of “willingness to be cor-
based on a legal or economic approach: rupted”, which is influenced by the “oppor-
the individual, on his/her own or for his/her tunities for corruption”. In other words, he
own reasons, diverts, as homo economicus used the theory of rational choice to give
and in a rational manner, seeking personal meaning to moral cost, leading to the indi-
gain within the limits, gaps or voids permit- vidual’s corrupt action. To some extent, this
ted by the law or jurisdiction. However, they moral cost is determined by the existing
are anchored within this legal context. From peer rules, more than by society’s laws.
this, Klitgaard’s “corruption formula” (1994) According to this idea, in a society of
has been created, appearing repeatedly in equal justice, in which costs-sanctions are
the analysis of this social reality: identical for all, a citizen who has the abil-
ity and/or opportunity to engage in corrupt
C=M+D–A behavior will do so. However, Fisman and
Miguel challenged this hypothesis in their
*Corruption (C) is equal to the monopoly of the decision (M)
plus discretion (D) minus accountability (A).
work, Evidence from Diplomatic Parking
Tickets (2007), whose results established
that the tendency to engage in non-regu-
latory acts with mild punishment, the so-
This logic, in the form of a mathemati-
called “deviant microbehaviors”, is cultural
cal equation, does not consider the entire
and has a strong association with the lev-
foundation of corruption, but rather, it offers
els of corruption existing in the country of
a pragmatic explanation of the individual’s origin. Sutherland (1999) examined this cul-
behavior based on a series of factors aris- turist line in his “Theory of Differential Asso-
ing within his/her scope of action. It helps ciation”, postulating that criminal attitudes
to explain why individual X in position Y are not innate, but rather, are learned. In his
may act corruptly if complying with certain studies on white-collar crime, he suggested
conditions and assumptions. But, how to that an organization could promote fraud,
we get from X to Y? converting it into a structural and cultural el-
In this individualist scope, Pizzorno ement, which would become deeply rooted
(1992) considered political corruption –al- if the organization was situated in a permis-
though in a sociological analysis. He fo- sive social, political and legal environment.
Reis. Rev.Esp.Investig.Sociol. ISSN-L: 0210-5233. N.º 177, January - March 2022, pp. 127-142
Valeria Ruiz-Lorenzo 131
It can be deduced that corrupt acts and in the Public Administrations or other pub-
practices depend not only on the individual lic services. Its conception of corruption fo-
and his/her opportunity, but also on cul- cuses mainly on the political sphere: 80% of
tural patterns, which influence the decision the Spanish population believes that corrup-
to engage (or not) in illegal behavior. Politi- tion is widespread in the political parties. On
cal corruption is not isolated from society the other hand, according to data from the
and its values. The corruption curve follows CPI of Transparency International (2017), the
the curve of ethical-social values; its scope trend for an increased perception of corrup-
depends, in part, on the assessment of cor- tion is on the rise in Spain: in a global ranking
ruption of public officials. In other words, a consisting of 180 countries, Spain is the Eu-
relationship exists between corruption and ropean country that has worsened the most,
social ethics: the transformations of social lowering by 12 positions since 2012, to be
ethics transform the perception of corrup- situated at number 42 (with only 57 points)
tion, both legal, sanctioned by the law, as in the last index, together with Cyprus. In the
well as moral, sanctioned by social ethics EU28 ranking, Spain was situated at posi-
(Soriano, 2011). tion 18-20. Interestingly enough, and in ac-
cordance with data obtained from the Eu-
robarometer, although a high percentage of
The perception of corruption in Spain corruption exists at a macro level, when ask-
ing the citizens if they have ever resorted to
Currently, with the uncovering of numerous bribery in the public services, Spanish data
cases of political corruption, as mentioned are quite similar to those of Germany, Swit-
in the introduction, it may be affirmed that zerland, Norway and even Finland: less than
certain political sectors have operated like a 2% of the surveyed individuals recognized
criminal organization, operating with illegal having made such payments. In Romania,
rules, disseminating, issuing and reproduc- on the other hand, the percentage was as
ing their latent practices, and thereby re- high as 17% and, in Greece, it reached 22%.
ducing their costs and maximizing their per- This low victimization is a measure of the
sonal profits (Della Porta, 1996). Therefore, corruption of the public officials and appar-
within said scenarios, a degree of political ently, the Spanish situation is similar to that
distrust is created, which ultimately erodes of the world’s least corrupt countries.
the social capital and discredits the powers, These surveys are clearly necessary in
leading to opportunist behaviors (Villoria, order to measure and control the percep-
Jiménez and Revuelta, 2014). tion of corruption, which is essential in or-
In order to understand the perceived level der to overcome this problem, since per-
of corruption existing in Spain, two distinct ception ultimately influences actions. At the
international sources have been used: the same time, this perception serves to ex-
Eurobarometer and the Corruption Percep- plain the subsequent behavior when tack-
tions Index (CPI). According to data from the ling moral dilemmas such as those pro-
special Eurobarometer 470 (2017) on cor- posing corruption (Villoria, Jiménez and
ruption, 94% of all Spaniards believe that Revuelta, 2014: 13). Furthermore, many au-
the problem of corruption in our country is thors have criticized these surveys for a va-
common. Paradoxically, in terms of the aver- riety of reasons: they are composite indices
age of the EU28, Spain has a lower percep- based on distinct sources of data (Anders-
tion of the practice of certain types of cor- son and Heywood, 2009), the difficulty in
ruption, such as: gifting money, giving gifts quantifying real corruption through percep-
and doing favors in exchange for a benefit tion, its influence on the creation of indica-
Reis. Rev.Esp.Investig.Sociol. ISSN-L: 0210-5233. N.º 177, January - March 2022, pp. 127-142
132 From Deviant Microbehavior to Political Corruption in Spain
tors and on subjective biases (Malito, 2014) 3. There is a low level of social capital that
and problems related to reification and con- is associated with the perception of co-
tent validity, due to the multi-dimensional rruption.
and conceptual nature of corruption (Villoria 4. There is a positive asymmetric relation-
and Jiménez, 2012). ship between the perception of deviant
Throughout this review and from the microbehavior and the perception of po-
data extracted on Spain in the surveys on litically corrupt behavior.
experience and perception, a recurrent par-
adox arises: there is a low level of victimi-
zation in the Spanish population, but a high Methods and source of data
perception of political corruption, as sug-
gested by Villoria, Jiménez and Revuelta This study is based on a quantitative ap-
(2014: 7). This perceived corruption refers proach, to ensure its reliability and validity,
not only to bribes but also to a type of poli- using a secondary data source: CIS (2009),
tics that is based on the constant intrusion study number 2826: “Public ethics and
of private interests in political decision mak- corruption” —this is the most recent da-
ing and vice versa. tabase measuring the variables necessary
for the study objective—. The study pop-
ulation includes individuals of both sexes,
of legal age, with Spanish nationality. A
Methods structured questionnaire was used, admin-
Objectives istered via personal interview, to a sample
of 2,478 individuals in a multi-stage pro-
General objective: The objective of this cedure, stratified by conglomerates. The
study is to identify the relationship between confidence level was 95.5% and real error
the perception of deviant microbehaviors was ±2.0%.
and the perception of political corruption in
Spanish society.
Data analysis
Specific objective: Our general objective
can be divided into distinct disjunctive, yet For the processing of data and statistical
related aspects: 1) to measure the percep- operations, the IBM SPSS Statistics v.19
tion of political corruption; 2) to establish the program was used. The main study thesis is
level of tolerance for distinct deviant behav- based on the cultural factors influencing the
iors; 3) to measure the impact of the social perception of political corruption. Therefore,
capital on the perception of political corrup- first, a descriptive analysis was carried out
tion; 4) to analyze the relationship between to provide a global view of the perception
the perception of deviant microbehaviors of political corruption. Second, to exam-
and the perception of political corruption. ine the tolerance of deviant behavior, both
microbehaviors and political corruption,
central tendency, dispersion, frequency ta-
Hypothesis ble and contingency statistics were used.
Because the objective was not to analyze
1. There is a high perception of political co-
individual actions, but rather, to consider
rruption.
the set of actions associated culturally that
2. There is a low tolerance for deviant be- serve as an indicator, the next step was to
havior. use factorial analysis as a means of statisti-
cal approximation to the theoretical dimen-
Reis. Rev.Esp.Investig.Sociol. ISSN-L: 0210-5233. N.º 177, January - March 2022, pp. 127-142
Valeria Ruiz-Lorenzo 133
Table 1. Frequencies, mean and standard deviation of the perception of political corruption
Reis. Rev.Esp.Investig.Sociol. ISSN-L: 0210-5233. N.º 177, January - March 2022, pp. 127-142
134 From Deviant Microbehavior to Political Corruption in Spain
Deviant microbehavior and politically corrupt the personal income tax declaration (IRPF)”
behaviors variable. This corrupt attitude against fiscal
morality, despite being considered unjus-
The selection of the following variables
tifiable, has a high collective standard de-
grouped together in two distinct sets: deviant
viation. Most of the responses are very uni-
microbehaviors and politically corrupt be-
form: they are concentrated in categories
haviors, both in this initial descriptive plan as
0-1, with a completely unjustifiable position.
well as in inferential ones, is justified by the
The mean of the responses is very low, with
factorial analysis and correlations detailed in
a value of <1 —taking into account the first
the following point. The following items have
exception—, and a standard deviation rang-
been recoded, eliminating values belong-
ing between 0.7-1.5.
ing to the “Don’t know” and “No response”
categories. At the same time, from the mi- Having a trend that is very similar to the
crobehaviors dimension, with scale measure previous one, this dimension is once again
values of 0 to 10, values were recoded into linear, except for the “That a politician uses
values from 0 —completely unjustifiable— to his/her official car for private use” varia-
5 —totally justifiable—, to facilitate its inter- ble, whose distribution of responses is more
pretation, since the results were grouped to- diversified and whose mean is consider-
gether in the lowest values. ably higher than the rest (1.7). In general,
In Table 2, we can observe that all of the mean values range from 1-1.7 and the
the behaviors have similar results, except standard deviations from 0.3-1, implying that
for the “Double parking the car” variable, the values are concentrated in the categories
whose mean and standard deviation are the “Clearly an act of corruption” and “I think it is
highest of the set, possibly because this is an act of corruption but I am not sure”.
considered to be the most minor offense According to the data in Tables 2 and
on a punitive and social level. Another inter- 3, it can be concluded that the second hy-
esting finding, although to a lesser extent, pothesis is accepted: there is a low toler-
is that of the “Not declaring all income on ance for deviant behaviors.
Table 2. Frequencies, mean and standard deviation for justification of deviant microbehaviors
Double parking the car. 30.5% 15.4% 17.2% 25.0% 8.8% 3.1% 1.75 1.481
Throwing out trash or waste in a
71.4% 18.3% 7.5% 2.4% 0.0% 0.3% 0.42 0.778
public place.
Not declaring all income on the
personal income tax declaration 54.7% 21.6% 10.6% 9.3% 2.0% 1.8% 0.88 1.219
(IRPF).
Faking an illness to get temporary
68.8% 20.8% 6.1% 3.2% 0.5% 0.6% 0.48 0.861
time off of work.
Using a pensioner’s prescriptions
66.2% 19.9% 7.5% 4.4% 1.2% 0.8% 0.57 0.983
to get free medication.
Source: Author’s own creation based on data from the CIS (Study no. 2826).
Reis. Rev.Esp.Investig.Sociol. ISSN-L: 0210-5233. N.º 177, January - March 2022, pp. 127-142
Valeria Ruiz-Lorenzo 135
Table 3. Frequencies, mean and standard deviation for perception of politically corrupt behavior
Source: Author’s own creation based on data from the CIS (Study no. 2826).
Table 4. Contingency table: Not declaring all income on the personal income tax declaration (IRPF)
Totally un-
46.0% 6.80% 1.9% 0.6% 55.2%
justifiable
Not declaring 1 16.4% 3.60% 1.2% 0.1% 21.4%
all income on
the personal 2 7.7% 1.60% 0.9% 0.3% 10.6%
income tax 3 6.3% 1.60% 0.9% 0.2% 9.1%
declaration 4 1.6% 0.21% 0.1% 0.0% 2.0%
(IRPF)
Totally justi-
1.4% 0.10% 0.1% 0.1% 1.8%
fiable
Reis. Rev.Esp.Investig.Sociol. ISSN-L: 0210-5233. N.º 177, January - March 2022, pp. 127-142
136 From Deviant Microbehavior to Political Corruption in Spain
The variables from this contingency ta- of the “Cronbach’s alpha” and “KMO” sta-
ble have been selected since they have the tistics. Using the Varimax factorial rotation
highest correlation between one another. It method, a model with 47 elements was cre-
may be verified that the majority of the re- ated. These elements were grouped together
sponses are found in the extreme position: into seven factors which explained the vari-
“clearly it is an act of corruption * totally un- ance of 62.27%, with a “Cronbach’s alpha”
justifiable”. The Chi-squared statistic has value of 0.897 and a “KMO” of 0.945.
been used as the contingency coefficient to These factors measure the following di-
verify whether these variables are independ- mensions: 1) Perception of corruption of
ent of one another, but the H0 was rejected: distinct social participants; 2) Justification
based on the following results, we can af- of deviant microbehaviors; 3) Assessment
firm that both variables are related to one of groups of professionals; 4) Trust in gov-
another. There is a relationship between the ernmental institutions; 5) Perception of cor-
level of tolerance of deviant microbehaviors
ruption in political behavior; 6) Perception
and politically corrupt behaviors.
of corruption of distinct organisms; 7) Cor-
Asymptotic g.l = 15 α = 0,05 Value χ² = rupt behavior of public officials.
sig. = 0.000 52,014 The second and fifth factors, dimensions
χ²g.l; α = 1,75 of interest for this study, have been used to
create the previously mentioned indicators.
Factorial analysis These dimensions have been recalculated
as new variables, not including all of those
As mentioned previously, a factorial analy- collected for the factor, since the items cor-
sis was performed for an initial considera- related with distinct values. Therefore, they
tion of the data: to see, in a general manner, have been reduced, maintaining the most
how the variables behaved between one an- significant ones, and thus improving the ex-
other, how they were grouped together and planatory regression model. Finally, the in-
which dimensions stood out. The reduction dicators have been created based on the
criterion was based on an exhaustive control following variables:
That a politician hires his/her own family and/or friends to work in the
Double parking a car.
public administration despite their preparation.
That a politician, public official or public employee accepts money Throwing out trash or waste in a public
from a company in exchange for favors. place.
That a politician, public official or public employee receives money for Not declaring all income on the personal
reclassifying land. income tax declaration (IRPF).
That an employee of the public administration asks that a citizen pay Faking an illness to get temporary leave
money to speed up proceedings. from work.
Reis. Rev.Esp.Investig.Sociol. ISSN-L: 0210-5233. N.º 177, January - March 2022, pp. 127-142
Valeria Ruiz-Lorenzo 137
Corruption in:
SOCIAL CAPITAL
Politicians
Source: Author’s own creation based on data from the CIS (Study no. 2826).
Before the final step, prior to applying ent variable, which is the prism upon which
the simple linear regression between the the study is based. In this case:
indicators of study (deviant microbehav-
— Dependent variable: Indicator of percep-
ior and politically corrupt behavior), a Pear-
tion of politically corrupt behavior.
son’s correlation was carried out, as seen
in the table below. This correlation was per- — Independent variable: Indicator of justifi-
formed to determine the level of associa- cation of deviant microbehavior.
tion. The resulting p value of 0.412 corrobo- As seen in Table 7, the model functions
rates the relationship existing between the with an explanatory capacity of 16.9%. Be-
indicators. cause an indicator based on only five vari-
Unlike the previous statistical technique, ables of social perception was used, without
the linear regression offers a dimension of including sociodemographic adjustment vari-
asymmetry. There is no effect of bi-direc- ables, this percentage is considered appropri-
tionality per se, but rather, the influence of ate, although its scope is limited given the fact
the independent variables on the depend- that the social phenomena are transversal.
Reis. Rev.Esp.Investig.Sociol. ISSN-L: 0210-5233. N.º 177, January - March 2022, pp. 127-142
138 From Deviant Microbehavior to Political Corruption in Spain
Table 6. Correlation between indicators of perception of deviant microbehavior-politically corrupt behavior
Source: Author’s own creation based on data from the CIS (Study no. 2826).
Table 7. Linear regression deviant microbehavior indicator-politically corrupt behavior indicator
Source: Author’s own creation based on data from the CIS (Study no. 2826).
Therefore, our fourth hypothesis is ac- tistic, confirming the lack of a correlation
cepted: “there is a positive asymmetric re- with a value of 1.82, very close to 2.
lationship between the indicator measur- Finally, our regression model included a
ing the perception of deviant microbehavior control variable associated with social cap-
and the indicator of the perception of po- ital, since according to the bibliography,
litically corrupt behavior, with the former in- this may be a dimension of impact (Villoria,
fluencing the latter”. At the same time, the 2015). Furthermore, this choice was justified
independence of the residuals has been given that the indicator correlates with our
corroborated with the Durbin-Watson sta- dependent variable, with a p value of 0.286.
R
Standard
Regression Corrected R
R squared error of the
model SOCIAL CAPITAL<= 5.00 SOCIAL CAPITAL> 5.00 squared
estimate
(Selected) (Not selected)
Controlling for the impact of low levels an R squared value of 0.415. Once again,
of social capital —with a criterion <= 5—, this corroborates with the idea of the im-
improves the explanatory capacity of our portance of the perception of mildly deviant
model and the relationship between both behavior on the perception of political cor-
indicator variables, which, in this case, has ruption.
Reis. Rev.Esp.Investig.Sociol. ISSN-L: 0210-5233. N.º 177, January - March 2022, pp. 127-142
Valeria Ruiz-Lorenzo 139
Reis. Rev.Esp.Investig.Sociol. ISSN-L: 0210-5233. N.º 177, January - March 2022, pp. 127-142
140 From Deviant Microbehavior to Political Corruption in Spain
Reis. Rev.Esp.Investig.Sociol. ISSN-L: 0210-5233. N.º 177, January - March 2022, pp. 127-142
Valeria Ruiz-Lorenzo 141
Transparencia Internacional (2017). Índice de Per- cepción y efectos”. Revista Española de In-
cepción de la Corrupción. vestigaciones Sociológicas, 138: 109-134. doi:
Villoria, Manuel (2014). “Corrupción pública”. Euno- 10.5477/cis/reis.138.109
mía. Revista en Cultura de la Legalidad, 5: 159- Villoria, Manuel; Jiménez, Fernando and Re-
167. Available at: https://e-revistas.uc3m.es/in- vuelta, Ana (2014). Corruption, Perception and
dex.php/EUNOM/article/view/2175 Collective Action: The Case of Spain. Avail-
Villoria, Manuel (2015). La corrupción en España: able at: https://www.researchgate.net/
rasgos y causas esenciales. Available at: https:// publication/303131718_Corruption_percep-
www.researchgate.net/publication/290963340_ tion_and_collective_action_the_case_of_Spain/
La_corrupcion_en_Espana_rasgos_y_causas_ stats#fullTextFileContent
esenciales/link/56ab220708aed814bde76370/ Yong Kim, Jim (2016). “Luchar contra la corrupción
download para crear un mundo más justo y próspero”. In:
Villoria, Manuel and Jiménez, Fernando (2012). “La Cumbre contra la Corrupción. London: Interven-
corrupción en España (2004-2010): datos, per- ción en Grupo Banco Mundial.
Reis. Rev.Esp.Investig.Sociol. ISSN-L: 0210-5233. N.º 177, January - March 2022, pp. 127-142