The Implementation Mechanism and Governance Path of Corruption: A Transaction Cost Politics Perspective

Abstract

Based on the perspective of transaction cost politics, corruption is essentially a political transaction process, and the development of complex transaction networks stems to a certain extent from the protection provided by the informal rules of corrupt transactions. These corrupt implementation mechanisms include first-party governance based on normative and trust, mutual implementation based on stable and constraint relations, independent third-party implementation for agency fees, and so on. Diversification of implementation mechanisms can meet the needs of different types of corruption transactions. For example, small and accidental corruption can be completed by first-party implementation, organized third-party implementation protects a high-frequency, large system of corruption. From the transaction cost politics perspective, the anti-corruption program must be holistic to break the path dependence of corruption, which can achieve a multi-level fundamental change from crushing the corrupt implementation mechanism and changing the social expectations to establish the authority of formal rules.