The ‘sociological turn’ in corruption studies: Why fighting graft in the developing world is often unnecessary, and sometimes counterproductive

Uberti, Luca J.

doi:10.1177/1464993416641587

Cited by 15 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 50 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Anti-corruption measures may also harm developmental goals (Uberti 2016b) and measurement of corruption using international indices can have perverse effects such as contradicting anti-corruption efforts or focusing attention on compliance rather than substantive change (Andersson and Heywood 2009;Heywood and Johnson 2017). The relationship between economic development, corruption and democracy is thus far from straightforward.…”

Section: Corruption and Its Relationship To Democracymentioning

confidence: 99%

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

Pertiwi

Ainsworth

2020

J Bus Ethics

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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,

show abstract

Section: Corruption and Its Relationship To Democracymentioning

confidence: 99%

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

Pertiwi

Ainsworth

2020

J Bus Ethics

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…On the contrary, economic growth happens despite the heavy price of systemic corruption. 96 If we understand corruption as one of the main challenges to the rule of law − as the EU rule of law promotion strategies do − then a reduction in corruption rates could alleviate at least some of the pressures on the establishment of rule of law standards. This is because the prevalence of corruption in the WB6 is not reinforced only by the existing patrimonial, particularistic, and, essentially, broken system but also by the scarcity of resources.…”

Section: Looking Beyond Law and Politicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The European Union’s Rule of Law Promotion in the Western Balkans: Building a Rule of Law Constituency

Hogic

2020

CYELP

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This paper deals with the failures in the promotion of the rule of law in the six countries of the Western Balkans that are in different stages of their EU accession process. Drawing on concrete examples from more than two decades of rule of law promotion through the enlargement circles, the paper identifi es the different evolutionary stages of this undertaking. It fi nds that the current dominant paradigm of rule of law conditionality concerning the benchmarking of progress in the areas of Chapters 23 and 24 of the acquis fails to tackle state capture as the main structural obstacle to the rule of law in the Western Balkans. The paper proposes that this situation is to be improved by re-imagining rule of law promotion as an effort focused not merely on standards but on building a rule of law constituency. Four different approaches to rule of law promotion that have been less frequently used so far are offered: legal mobilisation, institutional strengthening, the politicisation of anti-corruption, and economic development. The paper concludes with refl ections on the realistic reach of the proposed interventions into efforts to promote the rule of law, arguing that while imperfect they remain necessary in order for the project to succeed.

show abstract

“…Yet, the literature is not conclusive in this respect. Some authors assert that although corruption is endemic to the tourism sector (Din et al, 2016;Harris, 2012), it may well be irrelevant (Santana-Gallego et al, 2016) or even economically beneficial, from a developmental point of view (Uberti, 2016;Li and Wu, 2010;Fisman and Svensson, 2007). For example, Saha and Yap (2015) argue that even though corruption has a negative effect on tourism in general, it can have a positive effect when kept at minimal levels.…”

Section: Literature Review: Corruption and Tourismmentioning

confidence: 99%

The impact of corruption on travelers’ perceptions and preferences

Papathanassis

2019

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Purpose This paper aims to explore and model tourists’ perceptions of corruption-related holiday incidents and their impact on travel preferences and behavior. Design/methodology/approach This research methodology reflects an exploratory-sequential, mixed-method design, comprising a content analysis of 205 online reviews, followed by a survey of 268 respondents. Findings According to the data collected and analyzed, exposure to corruption appears to be more than an exception for holidaymakers. Moreover, tourists often associate corruption with a wide spectrum of incident types; those ranging from personal integrity threats to service delivery failures and heritage/attraction mismanagement. The impact of such incidents on travel preferences and behavior of tourists is highly dependent on the perceived competence, effectiveness and professionalism of local (destination) public services and authorities. Practical implications Recommendations for destination stakeholders include the need to enable and take ownership of tourists’ complaints and the importance of recognizing the role of heritage attractions as corruption-related symbols and destination image carriers. Originality/value This paper attempts to establish the connection between corruption and tourism externalities within the context of the recent “over-tourism” debate. In exploring tourism-corruption, the authors adopt a “micro-behavioral” perspective, which represents a novelty in the related macro/systemic-level approach, characterizing the predominant research in this area. Moreover, in terms of research methodology, both qualitative and quantitative methods are combined. This is an ambitious and challenging research design, demonstrating the synergies between the two paradigms and contributing to the completeness of the paper.

show abstract

The ‘sociological turn’ in corruption studies: Why fighting graft in the developing world is often unnecessary, and sometimes counterproductive

Cited by 15 publications

References 50 publications

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

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

The European Union’s Rule of Law Promotion in the Western Balkans: Building a Rule of Law Constituency

The impact of corruption on travelers’ perceptions and preferences

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About