Discourse of corruption in the Russian society

Objective: to study the socio-cultural and legal nature of the corruption phenomenon in a discursive and communicative context.Methods: the methodological basis of the article is the synthesis of the discursive and communicative theory of J. Habermas and W. Krawietz’s integrative theory of legal reality, focusing on the interdisciplinary study of corruption as an interdisciplinary category, taking into account not only objective, but also subjective components. This determined the choice of research methods (comparative, hermeneutic, and discursive methods).Results: corruption as a phenomenon and the interdisciplinary category reflecting it is determined by social, cultural and psychological factors of the legal reality development. Acting as a complex legal archetype, it defines the value attitudes of consciousness and behavior of the legal communication participants, orienting them to carry out actions aimed at satisfying individual (less often group and social) interests, even if they contradict the law. Corrupt behavior is perceived by a large part of the Russian society as a model of hierarchical interaction of the legal communication subjects, the purpose of which, according to the addressee, is to increase the effectiveness of the addressee’s activities. In addition, corruption is becoming an informal means of “liberation” from the legal requirements, rigid and unfair, according to some representatives of the society. In these conditions, the success of the institutional fight against corruption can be achieved only if this fight involves not only improvement of anti-corruption legislation, but also countering shadow norms, creating a system of anti-incentives for corrupt behavior, including ideologically, through the formation of value attitudes of citizens to reject corrupt practices as unpatriotic and harmful to the rule of law and the legal culture of the society as a whole.Scientific novelty: for the first time in Russian jurisprudence, a study of the category of corruption in the communicative and discursive aspect was conducted.Practical significance: the main provisions and conclusions of the article can be used in scientific and pedagogical activities when considering the issues of the essence and content of the Russian legal reality, in the anti-corruption activities of state and municipal bodies, as well as in anti-corruption education.