The verdict to N. Sarkozy: Corruption in public sector and corporate corruption in the eyes of society

Abstract

Corruption is a multifaced and controversial phenomenon, attracting attention of various social sciences. Conflictology considers corruption as a conflict destroying the social structure. Corruption entails the clash of different interests including interests of largescale business, government, and interests of specific officials. Society treats corporate and public governance corruption differently, aggravating the conflict and the counteraction against corruption. The court decision of 2021 sentencing the 23rd President of France Nicholas Sarkozy allows to demonstrate the controversies in public opinion to the corruption in public governance and corporations. Besides the general scientific methods, the authors addressed to the survey of students studying politics. Corruption in public governance is explicitly considered to be a menace to the society and criminal offence. Corruption in corporations is a menace from the public opinion perspective, but, at the same time, it is considered a constrained and acceptable form of work albeit unethical. Largescale corporations are issuing ethical codes with anticorruption provisions, however in fact they are inefficient and ignored by their employees. Admitting corruption to be a constrained phenomenon more harsh penalty for corrupted top managers is at the same time desirable. The corruption scandals around ex-president of France Sarkozy demonstrate the reputation losses of big multinationals while their top managers escaped the responsibility and fell out of the social opinion spotlight. The research shows the fission of interests and sophistication of social conflict around corruption.