CORRUPTION conjures up images of shadowy deals among lobbyists, corporations and crooked government officials. But it is often more mundane, as officials demand bribes even to deliver routine public rvices. Figures from Gallup, a pollster, reveal just how widespread such corruption is (e chart).
知道做到腐败总是让人想起院外活动分子、企业和腐化政府官员之间的肮脏交易。但通常腐败远没有这么复杂，比如，有的官员即使在提供日常公共服务时也会索贿。盖洛普调查公司的数据揭示了这类腐败有多么普遍（见图）。
Economists argue that such small-scale graft does great damage. Official extortion erodes trust. As authorities in countries like Greece are discovering, fighting tax evasion is hard if people have little trust in the honesty of tax officials themlves.
经济学家指出，这样的小规模行贿受贿危害很大。官员索贿会破坏信任。希腊等国的当局正在发现，如果人民不信任税务官员的诚信的话，与逃税的斗争是非常艰难的。
An Indian website, , t up last summer by anti-corruption activists, reveals
just how grasping officials can be. It has documented over 8,500 instances of bribery adding up to nearly 375m rupees ($8.4m) in backhanders. The include 100 rupees to get a policeman to register a complaint about a stolen mobile phone and 500 rupees for a clerk to hand over a marriage certificate. The amounts are much larger to facilitate income-tax refunds, where the standard “charge” is 10%; sums between 5,000 and 50,000 rupees change hands.
去年，印度反腐败活跃分子成立了一个名叫的网站，专门揭露官员的贪婪能达到什么程度。该网站已公布了8500桩行贿案，总额近3.75亿卢比（840万美元）。这些案子包括：100卢比行贿一名警察登记一起手机被盗案；500卢比行贿一位工作人员提交结婚证。为了获得返还所得税便利而行贿的数量则要大得多，标准“费用”是10%，总数多在5000到50000卢比之间。
But such initiatives can do little beyond allowing people to vent their anger about corruption. Kaushik Basu, the chief economic advir to India’s finance ministry, suggests that this may be partly becau the law treats both bribe-giving and bribe-taking as crime
s. This makes it hard to blow the whistle on corrupt officials, becau the bribe-giver has also broken the law. If he complains, he risks procution or, more likely, being asked for another bribe by the police. In a provocative paper bad on game theory, Mr Basu argues for the legalisation of some kinds of bribe-giving. His proposal has instigated a furious debate in India, with television channels even asmbling panels to discuss it.
但这样的做法充其量也就是宣泄一下人们对腐败的愤怒。印度财政部长首席经济顾问巴苏（Kaushik Basu）指出，这部分是因为法律将行贿和受贿均视为犯罪。这样做会加大告发受贿行为的难度，因为行贿者也触犯了法律。如果他起诉的话，他也可能受到审判，或者（更有可能的是）被警察询问其他贿赂案件。在一篇颇具争议的基于博弈论的论文中，巴苏呼吁让几种行贿合法化。他的建议在印度激起了激烈的争论，甚至有电视太组织了专家组来讨论这个问题。
Some thunder that the economist is condoning corruption. But Mr Basu makes clear that paying an official to bend the rules in one’s favour should continue to be illegal. The category of payments he would like to legali are “harassment bribes”, made by a perso
n to get things to which he is legally entitled. In such cas, Mr Basu argues, the giver should be granted immunity from procution and a proven complaint should result not only in punishment for the corrupt official but also in a “refund” for the bribe-giver. The steps, he believes, will align the incentives of tho asked for bribes and law-enforcement agencies which ek to procute corrupt officials by giving their victims the confidence to lodge complaints and encouraging them to hang on to evidence of bribery. Fear of being caught should make officials more wary of asking for bribes in the first place.countif函数怎么用
有人怒称这位经济学家在纵容腐败。但巴苏清楚地指出，付钱给官员让他为某人的利益而践踏法律将继续被认定为非法。他建议合法化的贿赂是“骚扰贿赂”，即某人为了获得应依法获得之物而行贿。巴苏指出，在这些情形中，行贿者应该免于起诉，而受贿投诉一旦被证实，就应该不光惩罚腐败官员，还要向行贿者“返金”。他认为，这些举措能够校正索贿者和试图通过给予受害者投诉信心和鼓励他们上交贿赂证据来起诉腐败官员的执法机构的激励。担心被抓应该能够让官员在首次伸手前三思而后行。
This sounds promising in theory. But India’s courts are notoriously slow. Jean Drèze, an I
ndian development economist, reckons that the difficulty of pursuing a legal ca against a corrupt official may mean that few will complain. If so, Mr Basu’s idea may inadvertently result in an increa in the incidence of corruption. At least some people who would earlier have refud when asked for a bribe, Mr Drèze reckons, would now pay up.
眉毛上的痣这在理论上看来颇有些道理。但印度的法律程序向来以慢著称。印度发展经济学家德莱兹（Jean Dreze）认为，向腐败官员提起法律诉讼太难，因此很少有人会起诉。如果这样的的话，巴苏的办法可能会好心办坏事，反而增加腐败的发案率。德莱兹认为，至少一部分先前断然对索贿说不的人现在会乖乖就范。
中学生运动会稿件
读书的力量观后感Yet when the bribes are for things that are their due, refusal to pay is unrealistic for most people. The tone of tho posting on the bribe-reporting website suggest that people are keen to strike back at corrupt officials. Becau Mr Basu’s idea should make this easier, it is worth considering. So are steps such as moving more transactions online, to reduce contact with officials. Fighting corruption will need more than one clever idea.
不过，多于大部分人来说，当行贿是为了得到应得之物时，要他们对索贿说不有些强人所
难。在贿赂曝光网站上的发帖语气表明，人们对倒腐败官员的期望颇为迫切。巴苏的办法可以让这一点变得更容易，因此值得考虑。其他措施将更多的交易拿到网上进行、减少和官员的联系等。和腐败作斗争，光有明智的想法是不够的。
from the print edition | Finance and Economics
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Apr 28th 2011 | from the print edition
