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What is Corruption?
Dr Heather Marquette, University of Birmingham
European Commission Training Seminar: EC Support to Governance
in Partner Countries (Africa focus)
4-8 July 2011
What is corruption?
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Introduction
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Definitions
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Forms and typologies
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Causes and consequences
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Challenges in fighting corruption
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Why worry
about corruption?
Cost of Corruption:
€
Decreases GDP by 1%/yr (UN)
€
Bribery alone = $1 trillion/yr
(World Bank)
€
3-5% world GDP
(World Bank and IMF)
Corruption:
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wastes development resources
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major impediment to development (MDGs)
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in the ‘Age of Austerity’ less tolerated by donors and their
publics?
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Definitions of corruption
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Defining corruption is complex because of ‘absence of a fixed
disciplinary allegiance’ (Williams, 1999)
Definitions vary according to approaches, aims and needs of
analysts/policymakers
How corruption is defined determines how it is viewed, the
policy approaches adopted and the legitimacy of policies
Recognizing this complexity, the EC has acknowledged several
approaches to defining corruption
• Legal
• Socio-economic
• Anthropological
Legal approaches
to defining
corruption
o
o
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In very basic terms, if it is illegal, it is
corruption; if it is legal, it is not
International conventions provide harmonised definitions of
corruption-related offences facilitating judicial cooperation between
partner countries
National legal definitions for corruption-related offences vary, due to
different legal traditions and social norms
Critiques?
• The powerful set the law
• Ignores offenses that may be legal but which society defines as
corrupt
• Facilitates a ‘tick box’ approach to anti-corruption; e.g., is there a
law against X? Tick! De jure may not mean de facto
• Cross-national comparisons difficult
Socio-economic approaches
to defining corruption
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Defines corruption as the result of individual rational decisions: e.g.
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‘The abuse of public office for
private gains’ (World Bank)
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‘The misuse of entrusted
power for private gain’ (TI)
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Has been famously expressed as the
formula C = M+D-A (Klitgaard 1988)
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Addresses the motivation for
corrupt acts (e.g. private gain) and the
nature of power (formal/informal
or public/private)
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Critiques?
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Focusing on individual’s motivation divorces him/her from their
community
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Assumes a shared understanding of ‘public office’
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Over-simplifies an inherently complex phenomenon
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May explain corruption but very poor at explaining integrity
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Anthropological approaches
to defining corruption
•
Concerned with the motivations, organisation of power, as well as
contexts where corrupt acts take place
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Considers corruption as both individual and collective phenomena
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The anthropological approach takes into account:
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Norms, rules, customs, and perception of corruption
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The importance of morality and trust issues
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Forms and organisation of powers
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Critiques?
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Too ‘academic’; difficult to translate into policy
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Ignores international norms; too context-specific
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May be used to justify an ‘anything goes’ approach
(Nb: Will be covered in more depth in the next session. Probably the least
understood/known of all approaches, with a great deal of potential to help
improve anti-corruption policy-making…despite critiques!)
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Corruption: An EU Definition
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• Corruption : ‘the abuse of power for private gain’ (EU, 2003)
• Broadest attempt to define the phenomenon, encompassing both the public
and private sector
• The EU acknowledges corruption’s complexity and the inadequacy of a
single definition
Typologies of corruption
• Bureaucratic versus Political
• Petty v Grand
• Need v Greed
• Active v Passive
• Incidental v Systemic
• Quiet Corruption
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Forms of Corruption
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(UNODC)
Causes of Corruption
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Low levels of economic development and high levels of poverty
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Unintended consequences of economic liberalisation
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Unintended consequences of Foreign Direct Investment
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Weak institutions
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Lack of accountability and
transparency
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Inequality
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Democracy (or a lack of
democracy!)
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Offshore banking, tax havens
and money laundering
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International organised crime
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Consequences of Corruption
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Hampers economic growth and development
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Jeopardizes poverty reduction
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Increases cost of services, especially
for the poor
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Weakens democracy
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Contributes to conflict
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Reduces the effectiveness of aid
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Weakens public support for aid
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Reduces trust in government and across
society
…..Its not the war, it’s the
corruption… (Sri Lanka)
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Challenges in fighting
corruption
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• Universal assumptions have hampered anti-corruption efforts
• Corruption is a contextual phenomenon
• The ‘primacy’ of country context
makes a clear case for better/more
political economy analysis (PEA)
• International drivers of corruption
are poorly understood or even
acknowledged (language tends to
be very ‘national’)
• Assessing and monitoring
corruption is difficult, especially as the definitions used are often unclear or
assumed
• Fighting corruption is inherently destabilising and even dangerous!
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Definitions that bring in issues to do with power and politics make this
more clear