Political Corruption Research Articles

When (and how) ideas become arguments: the regulation of party donations in Germany

Abstract This article aims to explain the deviant German case of an early and comprehensive regulation of party donations (combining a high level of transparency and incentives for small donations). Given the limited explanatory power of economic and institutional factors, the article emphasises the causal role of ideas for a policy stabilisation which occurred after 1993. A process-tracing analysis suggests that the 1983–1993 reform period was characterised by a conflict of ideas. During this conflict, ideas regarding undisclosed donations as an anti-democratic interference with democratic political competition came to prevail over ideas regarding all donations as a necessary condition for democratic competition irrespective of their regulation. The key actors in this conflict were, on the one hand, the new Green party which resuscitated the idea of donations being potentially anti-democratic and, on the other hand, the Constitutional Court which ultimately endorsed this ideational legacy promoted by the Greens. After 1993, donations in Germany came to be accepted as a necessary evil whose anti-democratic potential had to be limited by transparency obligations and incentives for small donations. The findings presented here suggest that policymakers need to link attempts to regulate party donations to ideational legacies (if available) to successfully tackle political corruption.

Fighting Political Corruption with the Citizens

AbstractPolitical Corruption by Emanuela Ceva and Maria Paola Ferretti (2021) presents a deontological account of political corruption, understood as an interactive injustice. The aim of the present contribution is to contextualize the authors’ arguments in relation to democracies and through the lens of democracy theory. In particular, it proposes to expand on one of the book’s main theses—namely, that public officials have a moral duty of office accountability towards their colleagues that stems from the nature of public institutions as systems of embodied and interrelated rule-governed roles. In a democratic context, however, officeholders should be accountable not only to their colleagues, but also to citizens, since the latter also occupy an embodied and interrelated rule-governed role in democratic institutions. Consequently, the moral burden of ensuring that public authorities and the public administration operate in a way that conforms with public ethics does not lie exclusively with officeholders or oversight agencies, but, at least in part, with the citizenry. Finally, this contribution shows how democratic innovations could contribute to fighting corruption and to realizing the conception of public ethics advanced in the book.

How local dealers benefit from their international participation: evidence from Africa

PurposeAlthough the prior literature has identified the relevance of dealer participation for multinational enterprises (MNEs), it is unclear whether such participation could also be an important means for local dealers to learn from MNEs. By adopting local firms’ viewpoint, our study draws on organizational learning theory to examine how local dealers benefit from their participation with foreign suppliers in Africa.Design/methodology/approachThe empirical setting is a combinative dataset of secondary data and primary survey of 164 small- and medium-sized local dealers with nine subsidiaries of a Chinese motorcycle company in six countries of Sub-Saharan Africa.FindingsThis research shows that dealer participation is positively associated with dealer performance, and this positive effect is stronger when local dealers operate in regions with low government corruption and high government support. However, the positive relationship is weaker when local dealers use the local tongue extensively but becomes stronger when their foreign suppliers have a high dealer coverage.Originality/valueBy taking a local-participant perspective, our study extends the participation literature to show how firms from a resource-constrained region may benefit from their proactive participation with foreign counterparts. Additionally, we identify the boundary conditions of institutional factors and strategic choices of local dealers and foreign suppliers, providing a nuanced understanding of firm behaviors in complex and uncertain markets.

Controlling Corruption Crimes In Indonesian Public Officials Using Multiple Factor Approaches

The research aims to examine the control of corruption crimes in Indonesian public officials using multiple factor approaches. This research is qualitative research with primary data sources directly from the Corruption Eradication Commission with a period of 2028-2022 . The results of this research explain that corruption committed by public officials is a crime that involves exploiting power and authority to obtain personal economic gain. Corruption behavior becomes interesting to discuss by studying patterns so that we can predict future corruption behavior and find out how to prevent corruption crimes. This paper finds that corruption committed by public officials is a type of individual bureaucratic crime and governmental occupational crime. The individual type of bureaucratic crime is the type that most often occurs in corruption of public officials. There are 6 fields where corruption is carried out, where the field of development project licensing is the field where corruption occurs the most. The mode most often used in corruption of public officials is the abuse of authority followed by bribery behavior. Early theories of criminal behavior have been criticized because they emphasized one factor as the cause of crime. Factors such as inherited physical traits, biological inferiority, weak minds, emotional disorders, or poverty are described as the sole causes of crime. The multifactor approach in criminology grew out of differences in the single factor approach. Its adherents argue that crime must be understood in terms of the multiple contributions made by various factors. The assumption is that crime is the product of many biological, psychological, economic and social factors and that different crimes will be the result of different combinations of factors. Therefore, the 'correct' approach in criminology is an eclectic approach that emphasizes the identification and analysis of a variety of factors

Cautious or marginalized? Perceptions of the riskiness of engaging in corruption and gender differences in corruptness

AbstractPrevious studies suggest that women are often perceived as less corrupt and more risk averse, possibly due to longstanding asymmetries in power and marginalization that reproduce certain gender stereotypes. However, much remains unclear regarding the origins of these perceptions. Why are some individuals and societies more prone to perceive women as less corrupt than men? We present the first cross‐country examination of these questions utilizing data from the latest wave of the World Values Survey, covering a total of 49 countries. Our results suggest that both perceived riskiness of corruption and attitude toward gender equality, in addition to the overall level of gender inequality in society, matter in explaining a stronger belief in gender differences in corruptness. However, the positive association between a higher perceived riskiness and the perception that women are less corrupt is mostly limited to societies with high levels of corruption and gender inequality.Related ArticlesCaillier, James. 2010. “Citizen Trust, Political Corruption, and Voting Behavior: Connecting the Dots.” Politics & Policy 38(5): 1015–35. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1747‐1346.2010.00267.Malmberg, Fredrik G., and Henrik Serup Christensen. 2021. “Voting Women, Protesting Men: A Multilevel Analysis of Corruption, Gender, and Political Participation.” Politics & Policy 49(1): 126–61. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12393.Tusalem, Rollin F. 2022. “Does Gendered Representation in National Legislatures Promote Substantive Representation and Human Development? Evidence from the Developing World.” Politics & Policy 50(6): 1096–137. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12503.

Hybrid Interpersonal Violence in Latin America: Patterns and Causes.

In this review, we argue that to understand patterns and causes of violence in contemporary Latin America, we must explicitly consider when violence takes on interpersonal qualities. We begin by reviewing prominent definitions and measurements of interpersonal violence. We then detail the proliferation of interlocking sources of regional insecurity, including gender-based violence, gangs, narcotrafficking, vigilantism, and political corruption. Throughout this description, we highlight when and how each source of insecurity can become interpersonal. Next, we outline mutually reinforcing macro and micro conditions underlying interpersonal violence in its many hybrid forms. To conclude, we call for more multifaceted conceptualizations of interpersonal violence that embrace the complexities of Latin American security situations and discuss the opportunities and challenges that lie ahead in this area.

The Realities of Anti-Corruption and Whistleblowing

Abstract Despite the existence of anti-corruption whistleblowing laws, Zimbabwe’s public service has suffered from maladministration, corrupt politicians, “mediators” and businesses, malpractice and irregularities for a long time. This article, employing grounded theory within a qualitative research paradigm, discusses a study which draws on eight interviews and found that whistleblowers lack state protection because state institutions do not have the political will to protect them. These realities are associated with: 1) state organisation capacity and success, or lack of it, in whistleblower protection in the public sector; 2) the significance of legislative and regulatory measures that encourage citizens to become whistleblowers as a key deterrent against corruption; 3) the lack of operationalisation of whistleblower protection within public organisations; 4) the possibility of creative intervention strategies and tactics that would increase the role and success of whistleblowing initiatives and actions; and 5) future financial incentives in laws and regulations that could encourage whistleblowing.

Political conflict, corruption and municipal finances in Oxchuc, Chiapas

En México, las finanzas estatales y municipales dependen casi totalmente de las transferencias federales. En los municipios indígenas esa dependencia es mayor, como en el caso de Oxchuc, en la región de Los Altos de Chiapas. El objetivo de este trabajo es demostrar, a través de un análisis comparativo con otros municipios de Chiapas y Nuevo León, cómo las transferencias recibidas en el ayuntamiento de Oxchuc ocasionaron conflictos y una lucha de facciones por el control de esos recursos, que trasciende los sistemas normativos, y se mantiene en el gobierno elegido por usos y costumbres.

International legal regulation of liability for corruption offences

International legal regulation of liability for corruption offences

Socio-legal conditioning of the differentiation of criminal responsibility for corruption offenses

The article states that it is advisable to consider the problem of social and legal validity of differentiation of criminal responsibility for corruption criminal offenses in two planes: external and internal.
 In order to establish very specific restrictions on the use of incentive criminal law measures against persons who have committed corruption criminal offenses, the legislator needed an appropriate tool: the definition of the concept of corruption criminal offense subsequently. This is due to the separation in the General part of the Criminal Code of Ukraine of a group of corruption criminal offenses and the legal consequences of their commission, which constitutes, conditionally speaking, an “external” differentiation of criminal liability. There are also legal reasons for the “external” differentiation of criminal responsibility for a corruption criminal offense, since the concept of “corruption offense” is defined in the Law of Ukraine on Prevention of Corruption (Part 1, Article 1), and corruption crimes are generally conventional and have a relatively autonomous existence determined by the provisions of international law, those documents ratified by Ukraine.
 The first step of the “internal” differentiation of criminal liability for corruption criminal offenses is determined by legal factors - the definition of the concept of “corruption” in the Law of Ukraine “On Prevention of Corruption”. The next step of “internal” differentiation is to take into account the types of special subjects of corruption criminal offenses and those spheres of social relations in which they participate and may abuse their powers or receive undue benefits. The reasons for such a differentiation seem to lie in the differences in the relations in which the above-mentioned special subjects are participants. The legislator, differentiating responsibility taking into account these spheres, firstly, determines the place of the article on the corruption criminal offense in the structure of the Special Part of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, and secondly, taking into account the importance of the relevant relations, constructs independent sanctions of criminal law norms.

Corruption and trust in the European Parliament: Quasi‐experimental evidence from the Qatargate scandal

AbstractCitizens' ability to hold corrupt politicians accountable is a key feature of democratic political systems. Particularly in the European Union (EU), such accountability mechanisms are often argued to malfunction due to the EU's complicated and opaque institutional structure, which could compromise voters' basic abilities to detect political malpractice in Brussels. Putting EU voters' attentiveness to the test, we provide quasi‐experimental evidence of the causal effect of a recent corruption scandal in the European Parliament. Leveraging an ‘Unexpected Event during Survey Design’ identification strategy in France and Germany, we document a sizeable negative effect of the so‐called Qatargate scandal on public trust in the European Parliament. This provides causal evidence on the presence of attentiveness to EU politics within these electorates. Given the EU's complex institutional structure, we derive two alternative implications from this finding.

An archaeology of media artivism: attempting to draft the history of digital culture for social change

The emergence of media artivism over the last decades constitutes a new and relevant field of study for researchers of digital culture and social change, digital art historians and media archaeologists. Since the inception of the new millennium and the spread of electronic culture, media artivism has grown into a field of its own with distinctive organizations, artists, curators and critics devoted to engaged practices that are close to political antagonism and far from the concerns of the elitist art world. Considering the worsening environmental and political crisis around the globe, the spread and conscious use of new technologies becomes essential to update the concept of artivism, intended as a kind of action-taking art devoted to social issues. By establishing an epistemological framework along the lines of media archaeology and digital art history, the research highlights the role of media artivism in the context of recent historical and societal developments, as well as its potentially leading role for behavioral and social change. From pioneering experiences to current practices, the paper explores how a growing number of practitioners are tackling societal concerns through digital strategies and thus drawing attention to several critical topics, such as: gender issues, environmental delinquency, racial discrimination, social injustices, political corruption, abuse of power, invasive technologies and surveillance abuse. In the course of the analysis, a relevant role is given to practices based on hacktivism, public engagement and intercreative procedures that aim at highlighting, disclosing, or spreading the state of affairs which are still uncovered in traditional media and thus expanding the role of investigative art/journalism in the Postdigital Age. The case studies presented show how media artivism emerges as an autonomous field shaped by practitioners acting on the premise of a vocation on the fringe between society and the art world.

The Art of Self-Criticism: How Autocrats Propagate Their Own Political Scandals

ABSTRACT In liberal democracies, journalists can engage the government by unearthing its scandals. Authoritarian regimes, where negative news about the government is heavily guarded, lack this process. Yet, rulers in China do propagate political scandals about themselves. Why? I theorize that they do so to engage citizens with propaganda and strategically control their risk with Information and Communications Technologies (ICT). I test my theory by analyzing a novel dataset of news stories and reader comments posted by Chinese citizens over the course of China’s anticorruption campaign between 2012 and 2015. My findings show that users’ comments about stories of corrupt national officials were unexpectedly lower than those about lower-ranking officials. Such irregularity suggests that either algorithms or censorship suppressed comments on national-level corruption, which indicates the ruler’s uneasiness toward propagating scandals that may implicate themselves. I also find that China’s rulers reduce their risks by outsourcing reports of their scandals to media outlets less closely linked to the state. My findings show that advancements in ICT and increasing competition among new media firms can help authoritarian rulers finetune their propaganda by promoting self-damaging political messages.

State Capture and Corruption in (North) Macedonia* during Zoran Zaev’s Rule (2017-2021)

Corruption flourishes when governance structures are deficient, where impartiality in government is abused by powerful interests. We use a framework for measuring corruption, the TASP framework – referring to types, sectors, activities and places developed – to analyse the rule of prime minister Zoran Zaev (2017-2021) focusing on the issues of state capture and corruption. Our analysis builds upon public and media perceptions about corruption. We argue that SDSM’s rule in the mentioned period was not just detrimental to the faith North Macedonian citizens have in government and its institutions. The corruption of Zaev’s government violated international norms of transparency and standards compliance and corroded, weakened, and endangered the foundations upon which democracy rests. We reveal a high number of instances of illiberal and corrupt practices of SDSM government in the period 2017-2021. The magnitude of cases involving state capture and grand corruption indirectly reveals that, following the victory at the 2020 parliamentary elections and the formation of the second Zaev government, the ruling elite undertook systemic political corruption, manipulating policy formation and public institutions to their own advantage. Essentially, Zaev’s rule replicated previous illiberal practices of Nikola Gruevski leading to the monopolization of power in the pursuit of particularistic interests.

"SPIRITUAL ENLIGHTENMENT”: UNDERSTANDING AND PREVENTING CORRUPTION THROUGH AL-QURAN PRINCIPLES

The politics of corruption in Indonesia has become an electoral culture for personal and group interests that makes people miserable. Indonesia itself is ranked 110th out of 180 countries in the world for corruption cases, so serious efforts are needed to prevent corrupt practices. The article uses qualitative research using the Maudu'i method by connecting verses from the Koran related to the topic of corruption. Primary data is the Koran, while secondary data comes from journal articles, web data and news related to corruption. This article explains the definition of corruption in the Koran and the urgency of corruption which clearly endangers the state, especially the role of the state in the welfare of the people. The verses of the Koran clearly provide instructions and prohibitions on corrupt practices which are prohibited in Islam. Islam itself explains that corrupt practices have existed since the time of the Prophet as described in the verses of the Koran. This article offers efforts to prevent corruption, including protecting the people by providing a sense of security, enforcing the law fairly, character revolution, increasing human resources through religious education.

A Critical Assessment of the Nexus between Foreign Direct Investment and Economic Growth in the Nigerian Context

Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) is the interaction of the rest of the world with a domestic economy. These interactions influence economic growth, depending on a number of determinants, such as: foreign trade policy, corruption, security, form and system of government, exchange rate, monetary and fiscal policy, economic equipment, infrastructure and availability of human capital, etc. The amount of FDI a sector will attract will be empirically determined, and its importance to the country will go a long way in determining the country's focus on continued economic growth. This study examined the impact of FDI on Nigeria's economic growth. The study focused on two key variables, namely FDI inflow and Nigeria's economic growth. Economic growth, the independent variable, is represented by three substitutes; Gross domestic product, gross investment and labor productivity. The investigation period extended from 2010 to 2019. In this study, the correlative research design was chosen. Descriptive statistics, Pearson's correlation, and regression analysis with SPSS 23 were used to analyze the secondary data collected from the National Bureau of Statistics’ Reports. The study found out that FDI has a negative but insignificant association with Nigeria's economic growth. The study, therefore, made the following recommendations: the government should encourage economic growth through start-ups, entrepreneurship and innovation; Nigeria should invest and accumulate knowledge, human/physical capital and promote the adoption of technologies; finally, domestic savings should be mobilized by the government through tax cuts, job creation, and improving the financial system to increase capital formation.

Prospects for overcoming academic dishonesty in Ukraine in order to eliminate corruption and shadow schemes

Relevance. The relevance of the study is determined by the multidimensionality of academic integrity and the need to observe it. Since the scientific field is increasingly faced with plagiarism, custom texts when someone else's thoughts are passed off as one's own. The development of academic integrity is important for the elimination of corruption in the educational sphere. Therefore, it is important to find perspectives for its reconstruction. Purpose. The purpose of the research work is to define the concept of academic integrity and find ways to transform the education system in Ukraine without “shadow” schemes and corruption. Methodology. The methodological basis of the article consists of a systematic analysis of the types of academic dishonesty of participants in the educational process and an analytical one, which consists of the study of the development of academic integrity in the educational environment, and the search for prospects for restructuring the education of Ukraine to eliminate corruption schemes through a comparative analysis of the ways of implementation. Results. The result of the study is a comprehensive analysis of the regulatory framework and legislation that regulates the strengthening of academic integrity in Ukraine. The work examines the problem of violation of ethical norms in the field of education and suggests ways to eliminate corruption in the educational institutions of Ukraine. Conclusions. One of the prospects for restructuring the education system is the implementation of ethical codes in the educational space. The practical value of the results of scientific research is determined by their further implementation and implementation in the educational environment and is important for participants in the modern educational process. Keywords: academic violations; ethical standards in education; corruption in the educational sphere; educational process; plagiarism; Code of ethics

Democracy, Authoritarianism and Global Economic Governance

Four weeks after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, US Senator John Kennedy accused the Biden administration of indirectly providing over $17 billion to Moscow as Putin was gearing up for war. In August 2021, the International Monetary Fund had indeed approved a historic $650 billion allocation of Special Drawing Rights to help member countries struggling with the Covid crisis. Russia benefited from these money transfers, as did Iran, China, and Myanmar, notwithstanding the authoritarian consolidation of these regimes. Kennedy's op-ed sparked a debate about the lack of transparency in the use of crisis resources and led to the adoption in the United States of the ‘Russia and Belarus SDR Exchange Prohibition Act’, which bans currency transactions with these countries through the IMF, following the imposition of 2,500 sanctions by the US Treasury since February 2022. The op-ed also reignited a decades-old debate over whether international organisations such as the IMF, World Bank and World Trade Organisation (WTO) should be held accountable for supporting authoritarian and corrupt governments or interfering in the politics of sovereign nations.

Analysis of Factors That Have Hampered Economic Growth in Italy

Italy's economic growth since 1990 faced domestic challenges, including structural issues, tax evasion, bureaucratic inefficiencies, and political corruption. Externally, as an EU member and participant in global economic forums, Italy's fiscal policy constraints and the need for a comprehensive strategy to foster economic development are evident. This article employs a multifaceted research approach to analyze the economic development of Italy in 1990. First, the documentary analysis includes a comprehensive review of the academic literature of various economists, the historical record of Italy and Europe, and the study of national institutions to understand the economic situation at that time. In addition, quantitative data analysis was conducted using economic indicators such as GDP, unemployment rate, and investment and trade data. These data were statistically analyzed to identify trends and implications for the development of the Italian economy. A combination of literature and data analysis methods were used to comprehensively analyze Italy's economic development since 1990 and to provide an overall understanding of both internal and external factors that influenced its economic development. Finally come out with recommendations for Italy's economic development that will help it to develop effective policies and strategies that will lead to a more sustainable path of economic growth.

Haunted Modernization: Urban Legends and Cultural Transition in Contemporary China

Over the past half-century, a series of reforms in China have brought about economic prosperity and rapid urban development. Urban legends in contemporary China constitute an essential part of folk culture, reflecting the distinctive features of Chinese urbanization and its subsequent problems. This article aims to explore some of the most representative popular urban legends, including the ‘Legends of the Campus and Shopping Mall’, ‘The Vanishing Hitchhiker’, and the ‘Legends of Phoenix Men’, in relation to social development in the period of rural–urban transformation. The article argues that Chinese contemporary urban legends provide an alternative narrative of cultural transition and fragmentation, stretching from the rural traditions to modern urbanization. They express Chinese people’s wishes, hopes, and desires for a better world, yet at the same time they also reveal their fears, anxieties, and concerns about the rapid pace of social change and the subsequent problems it brings, such as higher crime rates, political corruption, a deeper class divide, and a shaken cultural foundation. It is hoped that this article will provide a fresh insight into studies of folk culture and urban legends.