Perceptions of Immorality in Governance : An Empirical Study on Citizens’ Tolerance of Political Corruption in Poland and Mexico

Abstract: This thesis seeks to, firstly, define corruption in the context of corruption tolerance and secondly, to assess how citizens’ corruption tolerance is constructed. Corruption tolerance is discussed in the context of trust, democracy and levels of corruption. For the micro analysis, surveys were conducted in Mexico and Poland to determine citizens’ levels of corruption tolerance. It was found that even though the political and cultural reality is very different in both countries and levels of corruption are significantly higher in Mexico than Poland, corruption tolerance amongst citizens was at a very similar level for both populations. Moreover, it could be established that different understandings of corruption influence corruption tolerance. Low tolerance of single immoral acts such as bribery, election fraud and favouritism was met by low tolerance of corruption in general. The macro analysis showed that neither interpersonal trust nor trust in the government predicts low corruption tolerance. However, levels of democracy are found to be reliable indicators of levels of corruption tolerance, proving to be more reliable than levels of corruption.