Kleptocracy

Kleptocracy (or sometimes Cleptocracy) (root: Klepto+cracy) is an informal term that refers to a very corrupt form of government.

It means literally rule by thieves, and is used to pejoratively name a country which by one means or another, has allowed its mechanisms of taxation, commerce, trade, law, and government to be influenced to a large degree by private parties interested in amassing profit. A "kleptocracy" refers to a undesireable state of national government, which has reached extreme political corruption, where no pretense of honesty remains, and the government of a country exists solely to enrich its rulers and their cronies and to perpetuate their rule.

While the term "kleptocracy" may in past have referred primarily to dictatorships or some other autocratic form of government, the term has increasingly been used in reference to capitalist and socialist democracies, where the public interest and domain are routinely and increasingly abused by private interests. In the United States for example, the term "corporate rule" or "corporatocracy" has some resonance, referring to the power which corporations wield over elected representatives. While these representatives are intented to be servants of the public constituencies, a largely-unregulated system of political contributions and other incentives tends to retard the civic-minded functions of government, while increasing its facilitation and hospitality to private parties. While in totalitarian societies use the threat of violence to control the public, capitalist societies may tend use money as the mechanism to increasingly marginalise the public sector for control of the social agenda. After a certain point, critics assert, to continue call a country a "democracy" (in its intended sense) becomes a matter of practical difficulty.

"Kleptocrats" may use various overt methods (money laundering, anonymous banking) as a way of protecting and concealing their ill-gotten gains. Others methods may be subtle, such as political influence peddling, propaganda, legislation, indirect taxation, hidden social costs, etc. "Kleptocracies" are inherently unstable, since corrupt politicians routinely ignore underlying economic and social problems in the quest for wealth and power, and are often incompetent in the face of these crises. Some kleptocracies have collapsed into civil war and anarchy. Among the more infamous examples of "kleptocratic" government were Zaire under Mobutu Sese Seko's rule, Indonesia under Suharto's rule, Iraq under Saddam Hussein and Yugoslavia under Slobodan Milosevic. Older examples include the Barbary pirate states of North Africa in the 17th through early 19th centuries.

Less extreme examples are Nationalist China under Chiang Kai-shek, the Philippines under Marcos' administration, again with Estrada's administration, and Nazarbayev's Kazakhstan and Puerto Rico under the administration of Pedro Rosselló.