Anti-corruption Discourse Research Articles

The Anti-corruption Discourse of China: Cracking down on “Tigers”

Fighting corruption has been a signature theme in the governance of China since Xi Jinping became General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CCCPC) in 2012. Among the extensive attention from academic and policy discourse to this unprecedented anti-corruption effort in CPC’s history, there are studies that take the one-sided view that the effort under way is not anti-corruption in its strict sense as it relies on the Party mechanism rather than the legal system, scripted, and calculated for the narrow self-interest of factional power enhancement. Reviewing contemporary fundamental anti-corruption discourses, anchored in critical discourse analysis, and assisted by 134 circulars of intra-Party disciplinary punishments of corrupt high-ranking officials (“tigers”, dalaohu), this interdisciplinary study reveals that, by contrast, China adopts an integrated approach to corruption, which incorporates republican and liberal-rationalist beliefs and values. Specifically, it is characterized by CCCPC as leadership, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection as political agency, both following a mentality of the rule of law, and by the coordination between intra-Party disciplinary rules and state laws. This approach is appropriate because it conceptualizes corruption by targeting the main feature of the corruption-related problem. This study contributes from a discoursal perspective to the understanding of China’s anti-corruption in the Xi Jinping Era.

Bribe and Bribery Labeling in Kenyan Anti-Corruption Discourse: A Conceptual Metaphor Perspective

Corruption in Kenya has been a particularly large problem since its independence from British rule in 1963. This paper explores the motivation behind a cultural specific metaphor of bribe and bribery labeling in Kenya as seen from the conceptual metaphor viewpoint. The study identifies and explains the different terms relating to a bribe and bribery, describes social-cultural values in Kenya, and accounts for the cognitive processes involved in their interpretation. The data includes a list of terms collected from traffic police officers, public transport workers and commuters from different parts of Kenya. These metaphors were identified by the Metaphor Identification Procedure (MIP) created by Pragglejaz Group (2007) and analyzed using the Cognitive Metaphor Theory from Lakoff and Johnson (1987). The results reveal that language spoken by a society is an essential part of its culture, and the lexical distinctions drawn by each language reflect culturally important features of objects, foods, institutions, games, air we breathe and other activities in the society in which the language operates. We argue that conceptual metaphors are conduits of communication, and it is prudent to apply the cognitive linguistic approach for their better contextual appreciation. This paper concludes by suggesting further avenues for research into socio-cultural metaphors, and by calling for the government to innovate new ways of fighting corruption because the players have invented ingenious ways of communicating about it metaphorically beyond comprehension for a lay person.

Corrupt governance: Self-defeating anti-corruption rhetoric and initiatives in Russia

Resilience theory has been used to describe the “bounce back” effect—a system’s ability to recover to its normal state after a shock. While this usually applies to systems whose survival is seen in a positive light (such as democracy), this article emphasizes the other, darker side of this phenomenon. I demonstrate how anti-corruption discourse can support certain practices that actually contribute to the resilience of corruption. By comparing the anti-corruption discourses of the Russian government and its political opposition, this article shows the interdependence and mutual reinforcement of two practices: (I) the pervasive resolution of everyday problems by corrupt methods and (II) focusing on the corruption of particular actors as the main obstacle to the development of the country and society. The effect of this interdependence is ambivalent, as both practices challenge corruption and contribute to its resilience. In effect, this becomes a mode of government and I link the concept of resilience with the literature on governmentality to better illuminate the endurance of corruption in Russia despite sincere (and even well-intended) anti-corruption campaigns. This model of rethinking the resilience of corrupt practices with the special focus on anti-corruption rhetoric can be applied to other countries where corruption serves as a pivot of the social and economic system, as it does in Russia.

Multimodal construction of ‘rule of law’ in Chinese anti-corruption public service advertisements

Multimodal construction of ‘rule of law’ in Chinese anti-corruption public service advertisements

Reconstructing the Elusive Fight against Corruption in Africa: The Quest for Re-characterization of Political Corruption as an International Crime

Corruption remains the major hindrance to prosperity of the African continent in all spheres. It is the single greatest challenge to Africa's realization human rights, democracy, economic growth as well as peace and stability. Whereas the anti-corruption discourse dates back to the colonial periods of the various African countries and has continued for decades, no significant progress has been made. Increase in corruption levels in Africa is directly linked to political corruption. The paper argues that national mechanisms against political corruption in African countries are incapable of being effectively deployed. This is because the perpetrators of political corruption are the same ones who constitute African Governments that are supposed to enforce anti-corruption laws. This paper calls for a shift from national mechanisms to international mechanisms for fighting political corruption by re-characterizing political corruption as an international crime and incorporated in the Rome Statute, and appropriate amendments made to the Statute to align political corruption to the requisite threshold for classification.

“Fighting corruption” or “fighting the corrupt elite”? Politicizing corruption within and beyond the populist divide

ABSTRACT Corruption has become a central issue of electoral campaigns in Central and Eastern Europe. The EU and international economic organizations first emphasized the fight against corruption as an important indicator of good governance. The topic of corruption, however, has also gained momentum on different terms. Populists praise “the good people” and demonize the “corrupt elite”. As a result, anti-corruption claims are often only seen as a substitute of anti-elite rhetoric within the populist discourse. This article sheds light on the way the term “corruption” is used in electoral campaigns and argues that we do not get the full picture of the anti-corruption discourse, if we only focus on the populist narrative. Particularly, it argues that the “good governance”-framework creates incentives for pro-European and pro-market parties to politicize corruption independently of anti-establishment claims. Statistical analyses based on a new expert survey covering the campaigns of 62 parties in six CEE countries between 2000 and 2016 confirm this claim. While populists along the ideological spectrum use anti-corruption claims to highlight the dishonesty of the political elite, we also find parties that embed the fight against corruption in their pro-European and pro-market campaigns. Moreover, we find that these patterns are stable over time.

Anticorrupção No Brasil: Uma Luta Seletiva (Anti-Corruption in Brazil: A Selective Struggle)

The anti-corruption discourse was one of the main pillars, together with the anti-communist discourse, for the 1964 civil-military coup to take place and to try to justify its permanence. Despite the anti-communist discourse having resided over the 21 years of the Brazilian dictatorship, its strength was relativized over time, and its importance in the immediate post-coup was diminished in favor of the anti-corruption speech when it became clear that the communist threat had been overestimated (MOTTA , 2016, p. 22) and, for strategic reasons such as the political persecution of personalities who could hardly be classified as communists. This article aims to bring to light and discuss one of the most mystified periods, for strategic reasons, and the least studied of the 1964 civil-military regime: the Branco government and, especially, the discourse that during his government there was no corruption. The reason for this mystification is simple, there is a dispute over the memory of this period by the sectors that supported the coup, an Operation Salva Castelo (BIROLI, 2009, p.281) that aims to endure the idea that support for the coup would have been legitimate and that there was a loss of direction along the way in which radical sectors had taken power and only then torture, corruption and all the evils arose from this regime - a false narrative, obviously. Whoever supports this thesis seeks not only to modify and mystify the past, but to legitimize themselves as decisive actors in guiding the present and future of the country in the public arena. Speeches like these allow, for example, that newspapers such as O Estado de S. Paulo or O Globo (two of the biggest enthusiasts and supporters of the coup) can try to portray themselves as supporters of the coup, but with restrictions, as, for example, asking to the reader to understand that they aimed to protect the democracy and morality that would be at risk in the Jango government by the supposed communist threat and by corruption.

Neoconservadurismo versus populismo socialdemócrata. Una comparación de los discursos anticorrupción de Iván Duque y Gustavo Petro en la segunda vuelta presidencial de 2018

El argumento central de este artículo es que los discursos anticorrupción de los entonces candidatos presidenciales Iván Duque y Gustavo Petro durante la campaña electoral de 2018 reflejan sus respectivas ideologías: neoconservadurismo y populismo socialdemócrata, respectivamente. Se analizan los discursos durante la campaña presidencial de 2018, combinando el análisis conceptual de las ideologías desarrollado por Michael Freeden y el maco teórico de análisis discursivo de Ernesto Laclau y Chantal Mouffe. A diferencia de la gran mayoría de trabajos sobre la corrupción en Colombia esta investigación no se enfoca en evaluar las propuestas anticorrupción sino en desentrañar sus presupuestos ideológicos. Se encontró que, desde la perspectiva neoconservadora, Duque identifica la corrupción principalmente en el sector público y su propuesta anticorrupción se limita a reformar el Estado, sin cambiar las estructuras socioeconómicas del país; el discurso anticorrupción de Petro refleja su populismo socialdemócrata, donde la corrupción emerge como característica de la clase política y de un sistema socioeconómico altamente desigual en general, cuya eliminación implica la transformación de las estructuras políticas, sociales y económicas de Colombia.

E a corrupção coube em 20 centavos

Resumo Voltamos às jornadas de junho de 2013 para estudar como o discurso de combate à corrupção tornou-se pauta de manifestações que, de início, visavam a revogar o aumento das tarifas de ônibus. Mostramos a relevância da violência policial na generalização da condição de vítima, possibilitando o deslocamento posterior para a de cidadãos vítimas de um Estado imoral e corrupto. Apontamos o intervalo entre os dias 13 e 17 como o momento em que houve intensas movimentações da mídia hegemônica e de grupos com respaldo nas redes sociais para introduzir a corrupção na pauta das manifestações.

A moral atmosphere of development as a share: Consequences for urban development in Indonesia

Corruption is a social preoccupation in Indonesia, receiving as much attention in the media as it does in journals such as World Development. The consequences of this preoccupation have escaped the attention of scholars however, a lacuna that this article addresses. Through ethnographic research of sites of state-led welfare and community driven development in Medan, Indonesia, I trace the emergence of a moral logic characterised by bagi-bagi, or development as a share. National anti-corruption discourses, lived experiences of petty corruption, and the failures of development projects to bring meaningful benefits encourage various stakeholders to manoeuvre to get a share, or take their part from the resources that flow from the state. The impact of this logic exceed its practices, however. I advance the concept of moral atmosphere to reveal the emotional and affective consequences, the ways the ever-present possibility of bagi-bagi permeates development encounters and marks individuals as objects of suspicion. Through the empirical material, I demonstrate the ways the moral atmosphere of bagi-bagi influences subjectivities, social relations, and the distribution of resources, and hence the importance of examining it as an element of the development arena.

Back to the Origin? Popular Sovereignty from French Revolution to Current Anti-Corruption Movements: the Spanish Case in Historical Perspective

Analyses of the Spanish mobilization cycle between 2011 and 2013 concur with considering the critiques of corruption (and the growing discredit of traditional parties), one of the two key factors that has been determining in the emergence of the 15-M movement (the Indignados), the other being the economic crisis. This article investigates the link between anti-corruption from below and the claim for popular sovereignty in the Spanish case. In Spain movements' requests and discourses have found a clear translation on the electoral plan. Podemos, a party founded in 2014, considers itself the electoral expression of 15-M. For these reasons, the analysis focuses on Podemos and its anti-corruption discourse as well. The analysis is conducted in a historical perspective. Popular sovereignty has been the fundamental claim of the first social movements born in Europe in the second half of the eighteenth century. A historical comparison is carried out between the anti-corruption frames of democratic movements between 1760 and 1848 and the present ones, giving particular attention to their nexus with the claim for popular sovereignty.

The impeachment was a fascist and conservative turn against culture

In this talk, Brazilian media theorist Ivana Bentes (who was briefly Secretary of Citizens’ Rights and Cultural Diversity in Dilma Rousseff’s second government) revisits the protests of 2013, driven by progressive and emancipatory agendas but subsequently hijacked by a media-induced anti-corruption discourse that led to the parliamentary impeachment of the elected head of state and the installation of vice-president Michel Temer at the helm of a right-wing coalition. Why, Bentes asks, has the Left not been able to capitalize on this crisis of representation and what can cultural and media activisms do to rebuild the coalition that took to the streets five years ago against the World Cup and Olympic spending spree and in favour of land rights and the right to the city?

Winds and tigers: metaphor choice in China\u2019s anti-corruption discourse

This article examines metaphor choice in China’s official anti-corruption discourse. Drawing on corpus data, we analyze the metaphors used by the Chinese Communist Party and its flagship newspaper, the People’s Daily, to frame the anti-corruption campaign and influence public perception. It is found that both embodied experience and cultural models are recruited as the metaphoric vehicles or source domains for the strategic profiling of different aspects of corruption and anti-corruption actions as the target domain. Additionally, metaphor choice is systematically different in the Chinese and the English versions of the party newspaper, reflecting that metaphor use is sensitive to sociocultural context, especially to the knowledge base within an epistemic community.

Contradictory conceptualisations of personal social relations: the anti-corruption discourse and the concept of social capital

This paper explores conceptualisations of personal social relations in the international and transnational anti-corruption discourse (INTACD) and compares them to how the broader development discourse understands them in terms of the concept of ‘social capital’. In doing so, a fundamental contradiction becomes visible: while the INTACD pictures personal social relations largely as a cause and expression of underdevelopment, social capital conceptualises them as a potential driver for development. This contradiction results in discretion regarding the evaluation of personal social relations, which can be used to reinforce an anti-statist discourse. Moreover, it reinforces the potential for paternalist relations between donor countries and recipient societies and thus in global North–South relations.

“Together, We Can Make Corruption a Thing of the Past”: Strategies of and Oppositions to the Anticorruption Discourse

The main aim of the research is to discover the ways of the realization of the main strategies of the anticorruption discourse using the method of critical discourse analysis. The sources of the investigation are the texts of international anticorruption organizations, specifically, “Transparency International”. The intertextuality and interdiscoursivity of the anticorruption discourse demonstrate not only all of the trends that characterized the discourse of later capitalism, but also led to the creation of a new type of discourse. Anticorruption discourse is the kind of neoliberal discourse oriented to the dissemination of democratic regimes and principles of the free market on the global level. Referential and predicative strategies show that civil society takes the leadership in global anticorruption activity, emphasized by the demonstration of the weaknesses of governments and business. Both argumentation strategies and strategies of legitimation demonstrate the main aims of fighting corruption and the conditions of its effectiveness. The topoi of anticorruption discourse represent the features of anticorruption-ism that are formed according to the principle of the “mirror answer”; to be efficient, the curbing of corruption should have the same characteristics. Another kind of opposition includes the plain contrast between corruption and anticorruption-ism, which represents the “positive representation of the in-group (anticorruption civil society) and the negative representation of the out-group (corruption and corruptioners)”.

Local embedding of international discourse: Chile and the international and transnational anti-corruption campaign

The international and transnational anti-corruption campaign (ITACC) has successfully called global attention to the ‘abuse of delegated power for private gain’. However, several anti-corruption scholars have argued that the currently dominant ITACC is flawed because it ignores the fact that local understandings of corruption vary around the world. Others who have analysed the ITACC have claimed it is capable of effectively covering up these differences, in turn creating misunderstandings about the aims in the fight against corruption. While both arguments have been developed quite separately, this article combines and thereby advances both. It applies constructionist interviews 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. The exploration shows that Chile’s anti-corruption activities are highly political and they are deeply related to narratives of the country’s transition to democracy. By relating these narratives back to the ITACC, the article reveals a complex interplay between local (competing) corruption narratives and the ITACC.

Contested meanings in the anti-corruption discourse: international and local narratives in the case of Paraguay

Several scholars have criticized the current international and transnational anti-corruption discourse (INTACD) for imposing a universalistic conception of corruption on countries of the global South. They argue that in local contexts the term ‘corruption’ carries other meanings than those presupposed by the global anti-corruption consensus. While those scholars have studied either the INTACD or the local corruption discourses, this article explores the local embedding of the INTACD into the local corruption discourse in Paraguay. It argues that the INTACD indeed imposes its standards on societies of the global South. However, it is embedded into a complex local discourse and equally complex discourse coalitions between the INTACD and Paraguay. To increase its legitimacy, the INTACD would have to enable explicit deliberations on these local adaptations, including diverse understandings of corruption and agendas related to the fight against corruption.

Political Corruption in the Age of Transnational Capitalism

AbstractThe emergence of the ever-growing anti-corruption movement from the early ’90s onwards has proven itself to be of considerable importance in how we understand and explain global inequalities as well as in redefining corruption as a lack of transparency. This paper examines the timing and content of this international anti-corruption movement. It argues that, following the collapse of the Soviet Union and the deepening of an increasingly transnational capitalism, anti-corruption discourse has arisen as a new version of the ‘white man’s burden’, a justification for intervention into the domestic politics of less powerful states as well as an explanation for their relative poverty. Concurrently, the anti-corruption movement has functioned to push states into increasing their autonomy with respect to local interests and fractions of capital in order to become more subservient and hospitable to transnational capital as a whole.

Role of Small and Medium Enterprises in the Contemporary Anti-Corruption Discourse in India

Corruption is plainly deleterious to the enterprises and corrosive to economies. It is widespread in India. India is ranked 85 out of 175 countries in Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index 2014. A number of steps are being initiated to combat the corruption in India. There has been global recognition of the valuable role that the private sector can play and must play in addressing corruption. Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are identified as one of the growth engines for various countries in the world. SMEs are vulnerable to the threat of corruption. More than 70% of SMEs perceive corruption as an impediment to their business. This paper examines the various aspects of corruption and its challenges for SMEs and their role in combating the same.

Corruption and Adherence to Rules in the Construction Sector: Reading the “Bidding Books”

ABSTRACTIn this article, I explore how anticorruption strategies affected a tender held in 2008 at the Department of Public Works in Kupang, eastern Indonesia, in ways both unexpected and unintended. I show how anticorruption programs get refracted at the local level and become unanchored from their original intention, leading to an obsession with adherence to the form of the anticorruption discourse that runs counter to its spirit and actually undermines the anticorruption initiative by providing new opportunities for corruption. Here I contribute to recent anthropological attention to both corruption and documents by looking at how traces of corrupt procedures can be found in the very documents designed to counter them. I argue that documents form a significant ethnographic point of departure from which to study the unintended effects of anticorruption programs, especially when they perform the ambiguous effect of both strengthening the anticorruption discourse and subverting it.