Corruption for Survival through Family

This chapter explores how corruption through family networks operates as a survival tool in contexts where formal institutions are weak or dysfunctional. Using ethnographic examples from Hungary, post-Soviet states, and China, it highlights how societal-level informal institutions—socially shared but unofficial norms—emerge in response to scarcity, bureaucratic rigidity, or systemic inefficiencies. These institutions frequently operate through kinship networks that facilitate access to essential resources, such as jobs, healthcare, or housing. Practices like blat in Russia and guanxi in China demonstrate how family-based corruption becomes normalized and morally justified under the pretext of systemic failure. The chapter argues that families serve as primary agents of socialization, transmitting macro-level informal norms and strategies that allow individuals to “beat the system” when legitimate paths are blocked. Ultimately, it reveals the convergence of corruption, informality, and family as intertwined social arrangements that both reflect and reproduce the broader informal institutions governing everyday life in many societies.