“Democracy is the Cure?”: Evolving Constructions of Corruption in Indonesia 1994–2014

Abstract

Corruption is of central interest to business ethics but its meaning is often assumed to be self-evident and universal. In this paper we seek to re-politicize and unsettle the dominant meaning of corruption by showing how it is culturally specific, relationally derived and varies over time. In particular, we show how corruption's meaning changes depending on its relationship with Western-style liberal democracy and non-Western local experience with its implementation. We chose this focus because promoting democracy is a central plank of the international anti-corruption and development agenda and yet the relationship between corruption and democracy is rarely specified. Adopting a critical-discursive approach that draws on poststructuralism and postcolonialism, we explore how the meaning of corruption constructed The Jakarta Post (TJP) changed in relation to Indonesia's experience in implementing democratic reform, a condition of the international financial aid it received following the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis. In the 1990s, corruption was seen as an illness, and democracy the cure; from 2000-2011 experience with democracy brought disillusiondemocracy had not cured corruption but caused it to spread; while from 2012-2014 democracy was constructed as a valued end in its own right, but needed protection from corruption in order to survive. From translating the international development agenda in a relatively straightforward way, TJP moved towards constructions of increasing complexity and ambivalence. This demonstrates how corruption's meaning is fundamentally contingent and unstableeven dominant meanings have the potential to be contested, showing how they are an effect of power and raising the possibility of alternatives.Here James Wolfensohn uses a disease metaphor to assert that corruption is universally dysfunctional and should be eradicated because of its costs and consequences. This view, and the World Bank's (1997) more precise definition of it as 'abuse of public office for private gain' has been extremely influential,

Accountability Dysfunction in Campaign Finance Regulations: A Case Study of the 2018 Jambi Simultaneous General Elections

“…Second, accountability is a concept that promotes several international institutions. In the late 1990s, the World Bank and Transparency International launched a massive campaign in most Africa and Asia countries (Pertiwi & Ainsworth, 2020). The campaign has promoted accountability as a tool in combating corruption.…”

Games of Truth in the Age of Transparency: International Organisations and the Construction of Corruption

“…The concept of corruption has also come under scrutiny for being overly ambiguous and indeterminate, which has enabled stakeholders to align the concept with their specific goals and ideologies, rather than fighting the problem at hand (Everett et al, 2006 , p. 7). According to Pertiwi and Ainsworth ( 2020 ) the concept of corruption is assumed to be “stable, clear, universally applicable and self-evident”. This assumption has been widely questioned for being business centric and based on western ideologies, norms and values (Bratsis, 2003 , p. 17, Brown & Cloke, 2004 , p. 289, De Maria, 2010 , p. 117, Pertiwi & Ainsworth, 2020 ).…”

“…According to Pertiwi and Ainsworth ( 2020 ) the concept of corruption is assumed to be “stable, clear, universally applicable and self-evident”. This assumption has been widely questioned for being business centric and based on western ideologies, norms and values (Bratsis, 2003 , p. 17, Brown & Cloke, 2004 , p. 289, De Maria, 2010 , p. 117, Pertiwi & Ainsworth, 2020 ). Bracking ( 2007 ) also follows this line of criticism and argues that the international anti-corruption campaign is centred on the dissemination of Western policies, ideologies and governance structures from the developed to the developing world.…”

“…For Pertiwi and Ainsworth ( 2020 ), one needs to recognise the constructed meaning of corruption and its varied interpretations within different political and social contexts. Pertiwi and Ainsworth ( 2020 ), continues to state that there is a “need for more complex, contextual and historical understandings of the global anti-corruption agenda and its impact on countries labelled as corrupt”.…”

“…For Pertiwi and Ainsworth ( 2020 ), one needs to recognise the constructed meaning of corruption and its varied interpretations within different political and social contexts. Pertiwi and Ainsworth ( 2020 ), continues to state that there is a “need for more complex, contextual and historical understandings of the global anti-corruption agenda and its impact on countries labelled as corrupt”. This paper enters the space opened by Pertiwi and Ainsworth ( 2020 ) and Foucault’s work is used to analyse the relation between global anti-corruption discourses and practices and local contexts.…”