The Winter Newsletter of ACRN UK
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INTRODUCTION AND UPDATE Welcome to the December 2013 mailing of the Anti-Corruption Research Network (ACRN) UK. The ACRN UK Network is an information hub for researchers - across academia, business and civil society - who are either based in the UK or focused on UK corruption issues. The Global ACRN is a sister network which covers any corruption-related research, regardless of whether it affects the UK or whether the member is based in the UK. Please reply to this email if you have any events or publications that you would like to announce in future mailings, or alternatively please email if you would like to be removed from the list.
PUBLICATIONS Closing Down the Safe Havens: Ending Impunity for Corrupt Individuals by Seizing and Recovering their Assets in the UK Antonio Suarez-Martinez and Nick Maxwell The purpose of this paper is to describe the blocks in the system that are preventing greater detection, seizure and recovery of the proceeds of grand corruption located in, or routed through, the UK. Corruption in UK Local Government: The Mounting Risks Liz David-Barrett This paper reviews the impact of recent legislative change to local government in the UK, principally in England. The research identifies sixteen areas where legislative and oversight changes are likely to increase the risk of corruption in local government. The paper makes twenty-two recommendations to strengthen resilience against those risks. Testing if Corruption is an Efficient Grease: Micro-Level Data from Bangalore, India Srikar Gullapalli This paper analyses the demand-side of corruption with a Bangalore survey using exitpolls at the primary point of service provision for eight government agencies. A unique demand-side analysis of the effect of corruption on the quality of service shows that corruption is over-priced, hence calling into question Huntington’s “greases-the-wheels hypothesis” of corruption. The paper concludes by suggesting incentive structures drawing on the research results, results that have relevance for urban governance contexts in South Asia.
Why Do Africans Differ in Paying Bribes? Caryn Peiffer and Richard Rose By contrast with generalisations about corruption being pervasive in Africa, empirical studies show that some citizens pay bribes for public services while others do not. Three theoretical explanations for variations—differences in national context, individual attributes and public services—are tested herein with Afrobarometer data from 17 countries. Social and political capital and perceptions of the system as corrupt significantly influence the payment of bribes, whereas believing bribery is morally wrong does not. The degree of poverty is particularly important in bribes for services such as health and education rather than services that are a state monopoly, such as police and permits. The findings suggest that the reduction of bribery has more chance of succeeding by altering features of public services than by appealing to citizens and public officials to change their beliefs.
Regulating Transnational Corporate Bribery in the UK and Germany Nicholas Lord Recent large-scale cases involving multi-national corporations such as the BAE Systems and Siemens bribery scandals illustrate the difficulties faced by the UK and German sovereign states in controlling complex trans-national and multi-jurisdictional crimes. This article analyses the mixture of enforcement, self-regulatory and hybrid mechanisms that are emerging as part of UK and German responses to controlling transnational corporate bribery. This regulatory landscape incorporates a diverse array of direct and indirect state and non-state ‘regulatory’ actors of varying levels of formality. Mechanisms of a selfregulatory nature vary in terms of their mandatory/voluntary requirements and manufactured/organic formation. However, there is an assumption that the emergence of a variety of enforcement, self-regulatory and innovative hybrid mechanisms is sufficient but in reality this is not the case. Instead, the key argument of the article is that while these mechanisms are aiding the response, they are likely to fail leading to the default position of accommodation by state agencies, even where the will to enforce the law is high. Responding to Transnational Corporate Bribery Using International Frameworks for Enforcement Nicholas Lord Transnational corporate bribery is complexly organized at a multi-jurisdictional level. However, enforcement remains at the local, national level where investigators and prosecutors are pressured to respond using frameworks for enforcement created by intergovernmental organizations. These legal frameworks are incorporated into national laws which result in legal convergence between jurisdictions but the ‘functional equivalence’ approach of intergovernmental organizations enables divergence in enforcement practices. This article analyses two theoretically comparable anti-corruption enforcement systems, those of the UK and Germany, to evidence an understanding of policy responses at the operational level. Irrespective of the enforcement system implemented (centralized or decentralized, use of corporate criminal liability or not, among other dimensions), enforcement faces significant structural, legal, procedural, evidential and financial obstacles, even where the will to enforce the law is high. Consequently, criminal law enforcement is currently implausible. Convergence, Divergence and a Complex Interplay: Chile and the International and Transnational Anti-Corruption Campaign Malte Gephart Several anthropological scholars have argued from an ethnographic viewpoint that local understandings of corruption vary around the world. Others who have critically analysed the international and transnational anti corruption campaign (ITACC) have argued that the ITACC is capable of covering up these differences, which creates misunderstandings about the aims in the fight against corruption. This article combines and advances both arguments by applying a post-development perspective and argumentative discourse analysis (ADA) to explore the local anti-corruption discourse in Chile ¬ a country that is considered a success case in Latin America. This exploration shows that Chile¹s anticorruption activities are highly political and are deeply related to narratives in the country¹s transition to democracy. By relating local narratives back to the ITACC the article reveals a complex interplay between local (and competing) corruption narratives that, at the same
time, partially form discourse coalitions with the ITACC. Moving away from Corrupt Equilibrium Alexander Kupatadze Both internal forces of public pressure, political leadership, free media and anti-corruption institutions as well as external dynamics of coercive, economic and normative leverage of international actors may push for the change. However, the risk is that corrupt interests may hijack progress and even reverse achievements. This paper argues that the interplay between various elements of these variables may move the polity away from corrupt equilibrium to a better one as well as control for the spoiler trap. Over the long-term the institutionalization of anti-corruption reform and transforming social norms are important to sustain progress. Launch of the Quality of Government Standard Dataset A new version of the QoG standard datasets has been posted on the webpage of the Quality of Government Institute. The Time-Series dataset with global coverage now spans the time period 1946–2012 and the cross-section year in the Cross-Section dataset has been moved from 2002 to 2009 (or the closest year available). Also, an additional separate dataset is now provided containing the year of measurement (YoM) for all the CrossSection variables. Find information about all the changes made in the introduction of the codebook here.
EVENTS Engaging Citizens in Fighting Corruption in the EU Coordinators: Professor Ralf Rogowski (academic) and Andi Hoxhaj (organisation) 7 February 2014, Warwick School of Law Workshop organised jointly by the IAS Corruption Network, the Department of History and the School of Law, University of Warwick on 7th February 2014, IAS seminar room, Milburn House, University of Warwick. Engaging citizens is increasingly seen as vital in successfully fighting corruption in Europe. At international and national levels, civil society organisations have successfully become involved in developing and enforcing anticorruption policies in the last twenty years. Recently their contribution has also become an issue in implementing anticorruption policies at the EU level. The aim of this workshop is to evaluate citizen engagement at the national and supranational level of the European Union. It brings together distinguished academics and Ph.D. students in discussing policy developments and empirical findings about engaging citizens against corruption. The workshop will take place at the University of Warwick and is hosted by the Network on Corruption of the Institute of Advanced Studies of Warwick University. To book a place or for further information, please contact a.hoxhaj@warwick.ac.uk Combating Global Corruption: Shared Standards and Common Practice? 3-4 February 2014, Chatham House, 10 St James's Square, London SW1Y 4LE With the implementation of international treaties viewed as inconsistent and national approaches to combating corruption differing with every change of government, this conference will assess how the fight against corruption is likely to develop and consider the prospects for concerted action to tackle this global issue. Key questions include: How is international anti-corruption legislation likely to evolve? What can be learned from anticorruption efforts in states where corruption is ‘endemic’? What is the role of civil society in monitoring, identifying and preventing corruption? Will developments in international asset recovery deter corruption? Is more action needed? How does addressing corporate culture affect business?
MORE INFORMATION Please reply to this email if you have any events or publications that you would like to announce in future mailings, or alternatively please let us know if you would like to be removed from the list. Nick Maxwell Research Manager Transparency International UK E: nick.maxwell@transparency.org.uk T: + 44 (0)20 7922 7976
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