Corruption has been and continues to be evident in all societies, with differences only in manifestation and degrees. We focus on the manifestation and impact of corruption in the Persian Gulf oil-exporting countries and benchmark these countries against a set of non-oil-exporting Islamic countries and major non-Islamic oil-exporting countries. We first measure the degree of corruption in these countries using five of the most widely accepted direct and indirect indices of corruption. We then examine the relationship between corruption and various indicators of economic, social, and human development. Finally, we examine the association between corruption and oil endowment and the Islamic label, two common characteristics of the countries in the Persian Gulf. As such, the key focus of the paper is on the manifestation and impact of corruption in the Persian Gulf oil-exporting countries from a political-economy stand point and measurement of the impact of corruption on economic, social, and human development in the region. It should be mentioned that this paper was written before the blossoming of the “2011 Arab Spring.” The major reasons, to varying degrees, for the protests in the Mideast and North Africa have been because of decades of economic deprivation, autocratic rule, political injustice, institutional corruption, and human rights violations.
The Political Economy of a Transnational Elite in the [Persian] Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC)