Corruption is a multifaceted phenomenon, linking multiple issues together such as abuse of entrusted power for private gains, lack of integrity, taking bribes, maladministration, fraud, and nepotism.

It is a challenge to democracy in following ways:

• It tends to threaten the basic social and economic fabric of the country. It will lead to increased poverty and inequality and make the public and private sector dysfunctional.
• It also leads to rigged economic and political systems and diminishes states capacity and damages institutional efficiency to tackle corruption and other bad governance in the public administration.
• It leads to political instability and can lead towards civil unrest and political chaos.

The citizens estimate corruption in several ways, for example, citizens estimate the trustworthiness of the public organizations, social institutions as well the government of the country and in turn their acceptability and hostile attitude as well participation towards corruption shapes up. Further, the citizens watch how frequently the different forms of integrity-violating actions take place in public administrations and how deep rooted they are.

This estimation and perception of corruption by citizens can have following impact, which is harmful and help in widespread prevalence of corruption due to following reasons:

• People’s trust and confidence in the control of corruption is decreased if trust in the government in general is weak.
• People lose trust in leaders, in social systems and public institutions and sometimes even in society and ethics itself when they sense that corruption is widespread and corrupt actors are not being held accountable.
• When political non-accountability increases, such perceptions persist for protracted periods and political participation diminishes. Moreover, public frustration and the sense that corruption is widespread can in turn pave the way for citizens themselves to take part in corrupt transactions.