Faṣlnāmah-i Pizhūhish-i Huqūq-i Kiyfarī (Feb 2024)
Economic approach to the criminalization of rent-seeking; Challenges and requirements
Abstract
Rent seeking is a widely used word in our society that the frequency of its use indicates the prevalence of a type of behavior based on receiving illegitimate financial and non-financial benefits by exploiting the fields and factors of rent, such as passing laws, granting licenses, creating monopolies and access to information. Whenever there is a restriction on competition, whether it is of a natural type, such as a limitation caused by natural resources, or an artificial type, such as monopolies caused by innovation or entry ban, it creates a kind of surplus income for the beneficiaries, which is called rent in the economic literature. In other words, rent is the additional income paid to the owner of resources or the owner of expertise, which is not the result of operating in a competitive market and is not entirely the result of an individual's effort or expertise. Therefore, it can be said that rent is a kind of "privilege" resulting from non-competitive conditions, and rent-seeking is also called the process of acquiring this privilege.This phenomenon has left many negative consequences at different levels of the social system and from a criminological point of view, while weakening public morals and increasing corruption, it plays a significant role in the production and proliferation of economic and non-economic crimes, so it is considered a widespread pest and a serious warning for order and public security.The current approach of Iran's legal system towards rent seeking is based on situational prevention through methods such as dealing with the property of officials, creating job bans and restrictions on participation in government transactions, and also prevention and criminal confrontation through criminalization and punishment crimes related to rent-seeking (such as bribery, money laundering and embezzlement); But the criminalization of rent-seeking is a place of challenge and doubt. The justification or non-justification of the criminalization of rent seeking depends on the evaluation of various factors to assessment the reprehensibility or harmfulness of this phenomenon, which is above all these factors, economic needs. The supremacy of economic principles in assessment of criminalization of rent seeking arose from the connection of rent with the economic system. Rent, which is sometimes referred to as economic rent, is defined by several definitions such as payment and exclusive privilege, and as in classical economics, it is a normal concept; In moral economy, it is considered an unpleasant concept. Therefore, in the way of criminalizing rent seeking, it should be seen how much the phenomenon of rent seeking is affected by its main platform, which is the economy, and in the meantime, the legal system as the guardian of the criminalization of reprehensible behaviors or harmful, what ratio does it establish between the economic factor and other factors.Starting to investigate the feasibility of criminalizing rent seeking from an economic point of view is not only for the purpose of connecting the origin of rent with the economy; Rather, the economic approach to criminalization and calculating the cost-benefits of determining the punishment for rent seeking can distance the politician from emotional and rhetorical policies.The presentation of views related to the fight against rent seeking and economic corruption and the necessity of a decisive response to the corrupters is always tinged with politicization and sloganeering, which can cast a shadow on acceleration in criminalization. It is for this reason that despite the existence of various policies regarding dealing with rent and numerous criminalization that have been carried out regarding all types of crimes related to rent, we still witness the failure of these policies and the increase of rent seeking in country. It seems that the antidote to such hasty policies is the logical arrangement of criminalization requirements along with each other, where economic requirements are placed higher than others in the face of rent seeking.The economic approach is based on focus on not causing disruption in economic processes and its efficiency on the one hand and measuring the cost benefits of criminalization of rent-seeking on the economy (and not other areas because measuring the cost benefits of criminalization in the field of other issues are raised in general criminalization and are not exclusive to rent seeking.) and through the lens of these two indicators, it tries to show its share of justifying the criminalization of rent seeking as an independent crime.The main issue of this article is whether the criminalization of rent can be justified from the point of view of economic needs, so that it is time to examine other bases and needs (such as moral, social and political bases) or not? From an economic point of view, the criminalization of rent seeking faces two main challenges and one secondary challenge.In the first main challenge, this issue is raised that the criminalization of rent seeking leads to the control of economic activities and the ordering of the management or organization of the economy in macro dimensions, in such a way that the control of privileges, even if exclusive, can cause The free path of the economy will be lost. In fact, with the criminalization of rent, the government's rent economy will move from the side of the executive power to the control economy of the judiciary, and nothing will change in practice. The second main challenge considers the criminalization of rent-seeking from the perspective of a relative phenomenon whose positive and negative meanings are intertwined in the economy and cannot be demarcated. The sub-challenge looks at the criminalization of rent from the perspective of normative economics, based on which, its border with economic and financial corruption is not clear and does not have the characteristics of an independent criminal phenomenon.as a result, from the perspective of criminology and accurate knowledge of the causes of delinquency, it can be associated with challenges.Using library sources and by the method of description and analysis, this article has reached the conclusion that the economic approach to the criminalization of rent-seeking is ultimately positive, and according to the factor responsible for the economy, which is the main source and also the economic consequences of rent-seeking, this phenomenon should be criminalized. However, the necessity of freedom and competitiveness in economical activities should be considered as a negative criterion in the criminalization. Therefore, instead of focusing on economic activities it is suggested that in the criminalization of rent-seeking, the position, motivation and activities of the economic operator should be the center of the criminalization.
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