| Bribery is the practice of offering a professional money or other favours in order to circumvent ethics in a variety of professions. It is a form of corruption and is generally illegal, or at least cause for penalties from professional organisations.
For example, a motorist may bribe a police officer not to issue a ticket for
speeding, a citizen seeking paperwork or utility line connections may bribe a functionary for faster service, a construction
company may bribe a civil servant to award a contract, or a narcotics smuggler
may bribe a judge to lessen criminal penalties.
In some cases, the briber holds a powerful role and controls the transaction; in other cases, a bribe may be effectively
extracted from the person paying it.
The level of non-monetary favours that constitute an incentive to unethical behaviour is variable and may constitute a matter
of opinion in a given field.
In some societies, tipping is looked down as bribery.
Smoothing bureaucracy
A grey area may exist when payments to smooth transactions are made. United States law is particularly strict in limiting the ability of businesses to pay for the awarding of
contracts by foreign governments; however, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act contains an exception for "grease payments"; very basically,
this allows payments to officials in order to obtain the performance of ministerial acts which they are legally required to do,
but may delay in the absence of such payment. In some countries, this practice is the norm, often resulting from a developing
nation not having the tax structure to pay civil servants an adequate salary. Nevertheless, most economists regard bribery as a
bad thing because it encourages rent seeking behaviour. A state where
bribery has become a way of life is a kleptocracy.
Payola
In the music industry, the practice of record companies paying money
for the broadcast of records on music radio is called payola, but only if the song
is presented as being part of the normal day's broadcast. A radio station has always had the ability to play a specific song in
exchange for money; however, this must be disclosed on the air as being sponsored airtime, and that play of the song should not
be reported as a "spin". Some radio stations report spins of the newest and most popular songs to industry publications, which
are then published. The number of times the songs are played can influence other stations around the country to play or pass on a
particular song. On influential stations (and particularly on television) payola can become so commonplace that it becomes
difficult for artists to get their records/videos played without offering some sort of payment.
Alan Freed—a disc
jockey and early supporter of rock and roll—saw his career and
reputation greatly harmed by a payola scandal. Another early disc jockey who was nearly derailed by the payola scandal was
Dick Clark, but he avoided trouble by selling
his stake in a record company and cooperating with authorities.
The practice was criticized in the chorus of the Dead Kennedys song
"Pull My Strings," a parody of the song "My Sharona."
Currently a different form of payola is used by Record Industry through the loophole of being able to pay a third party,
independent record promoters, or indies, who will then go and 'promote' those songs to radio stations. Offering the radio
stations "promotion payments" the indies get the songs that their clients, record companies, want on the playlists of
radiostations around the country.
Due to this a very large majority of DJ's are cut out of the song picking decisions and are instead told what to play and/or
when by music directors and/or 'higher ups' at that radio station.
This new type of payola side steps current FCC regulations requiring that if a song is paid for by the record company the
radio station must state that it was paid for through the use of indies.
More information about the current use of payola to influence whats heard on the radio can be found at:
Medicine
Pharmaceutical corporations may seek to reward doctors for heavy prescription of their drugs through gifts. The American Medical Association has published ethical
guidelines for gifts from industry which include the tenet that physicians should not accept gifts if they are given in relation
to the physician’s prescribing practices. [1] (http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/article/4001-7922.html) Doubtful cases include grants for
travelling to medical conventions that double as tourist trips.
Dentists often receive samples of home dental care products such as toothpaste, which are of negligible value; somewhat
ironically, dentists in a television commercial will often state that they get these samples but pay to use the sponsor's
product.
Law
In legal situations, lawyers, judges, and
others with power may be subject to bribery or payoff for making a decision that benefits someone willing to pay
for favours. Operation
Greylord revealed that bribery was rampant in the bench and bar community of Chicago in the early 1980s.
Politics
Politicians receive campaign contributions and other payoff from powerful corporations when making choices in the interests of those corporations, or in anticipation of favorable
policy. See also influence peddling and political
corruption.
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