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Corruption as an Empty Signifier critically explores the ways in which corruption in Africa has been equated with African politics and political order, and offers a novel approach to understanding corruption as a potentially emancipatory discourse of political transformation.
Why did Albania enjoy some of the most successful anti-corruption programs and institutions along with what appeared to be growing levels of corruption during the period 1998-2005? Looking at corruption through a post-structuralist discourse analysis perspective this book argues that the dominant corruption discourse in Albania served primarily to institute the neoliberal order rather than eliminate corruption. It did so in four interrelated ways. First, blaming every Albanian failure on corruption avoided a critical engagement with the existing neoliberal developmental model. Second, the dominant articulation of corruption as abuse of public office for private gain consigned it to the public sector, transforming neoliberal policies of privatisation and expanding markets into anticorruption measures. Third, international anticorruption campaigns reproduced an asymmetric relationship of dependency between Albania and the international institutions that monitored it by articulating corruption as internal to the Albanian condition. Finally, against corruption international and local actors could articulate a neoliberal order that was free of internal contradictions and fully compatible with democratization. As a rare example of post-structuralist discourse analysis of corruption this book can be useful for future research on discourses of corruption in other countries of the region and beyond.
A review from Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science: WE so often think of corruption as a feature of "practical politics" that we forget that it is a much broader phenomenon. Political corruption is only a symptom of a condition far too prevalent in all branches of our national life. The author aims to analyze the nature of these conditions and to show the far-reaching character of the task which thorough-going reformers must set themselves. The first two chapters of the work. Apologies for Political Corruption and the Nature of Political Corruption have already become known to those interested in political science through magazine publication. After the definition of the field of the work in these two preliminary studies there follows an analysis of the reasons why corruption is so persistent a by-product of political and social life. A brief review of the history of corruption from the Greeks to Pepys, Tweed and our present-day offenders shows that, though the evil is still with us, its forms have become less and less dangerous. In spite of the fact that the methods of the modern corruptionist often show skill little short of genius, Mr. Brooks believes that the evil is gradually being driven into fields less profitable to exploit. Not even Chris. Magee, former boss of Pittsburgh, could now declare that a "ring could be made as safe as a bank," and it cannot be said that "the people will never kick on a ten per cent rake-off." National, state and municipal governments represent decreasing grades of success in the fight for clean government, but in every branch conditions are, on the average, far better than a generation ago. A chapter on corruption in the professions brings out strong contrasts, especially in the opinions as to the effect of money influence on the press and on educational institutions through acceptance of "tainted money." Mr. Brooks concludes that no great danger threatens from this quarter since the improper use of money in the professions must destroy the people's confidence in those influenced and hence bring the defeat of its own ends. The most insidious forms of corruptions, and those which do most to debauch public opinion are those which appear in the world of business. Such abuses tend to leave the economic field and become a menace to the state itself. Government regulation, though its mistakes be frequent, must be our reliance here to an ever greater extent, and the government servants must be kept from forsaking the service for that of the great business organizations by adequate salaries and a general recognition of their service to the public. Finally, how shall political corruption itself be kept down? Here, too, the machinery of the state must be called upon to regulate who may make contribution for political purposes, how much may be contributed and how the money may be spent. Other forms of corrupt reward, such as those connected with the patronage must be uprooted by an efficient civil service system supplemented by civil pensions. A detailed exposition of the subject treated cannot be expected in a book of this size. In fact that is the greatest criticism of the discussion — that there is not more of it, but no one will read its pages without getting a clearer idea of what clean government means.
Why did Albania enjoy some of the most successful anti-corruption programs and institutions along with what appeared to be growing levels of corruption during the period 1998-2005? Looking at corruption through a post-structuralist discourse analysis perspective this book argues that the dominant corruption discourse in Albania served primarily to institute the neoliberal order rather than eliminate corruption. As a rare example of post-structuralist discourse analysis of corruption this book can be useful for future research on discourses of corruption in other countries of the region and beyond.
Leaders of hybrid regimes in pursuit of political domination and material gain instrumentalize both hidden forms of corruption and public anti-corruption policies. Corruption is pursued for different purposes including cooperation with strategic partners and exclusion of opponents. Presidents use anti-corruption policies to legitimize and institutionalize political domination. Corrupt practices and anti-corruption policies become two sides of the same coin and are exercised to maintain an uneven political playing field. This study combines empirical analysis and social constructivism for an investigation into the presidencies of Leonid Kuchma (1994–2005), Viktor Yushchenko (2005–2010), and Viktor Yanukovych (2010–2014). Explorative expert interviews, press surveys, content analysis of presidential speeches, as well as critical assessment of anti-corruption legislation are used for comparison and process tracing of the utilization of corruption under three Ukrainian presidents.
Corruption is a serious concern, one which can undermine state legitimacy, exacerbate inequality, and affect trust between social groups. Such effects are particularly problematic in societies that have gone through violent conflict, and are struggling to rebuild institutions, restore social trust, and recover economically. While anti-corruption measures are increasingly integrated into post-conflict programs, war-time structures and practices of corruption often prevail. This book explores corruption in post-war societies by focusing on the important issues of power, inequality and trust. To understand post-war power structures, and the extent to which they engrain, challenge, or transform corrupt practices, we need to study what kind of peace has emerged. The empirical cases in this book offer a variety of post-conflict situations, demonstrating how corruption is played out in, depending on the type and extent of international intervention, and in the case of a victor’s peace, a contested peace, a partial peace etc. The chapters illustrate the experiences and perceptions of people on the ground in post-conflict societies, and by giving much space to local dynamics, the book shifts the focus from external intervention and actors to local contexts, striving for greater understanding of the interplay between corruption, power, inequality, and trust in post-war societies. This book was originally published as a special issue of Third World Quarterly.
This volume analyzes crises in International Relations (IR) in an innovative way. Rather than conceptualizing a crisis as something unexpected that has to be managed, the contributors argue that a crisis needs to be analyzed within a wider context of change: when new discourses are formed, communities are (re)built, and new identities emerge. Focusing on Ukraine, the book explore various questions related to crisis and change, including: How are crises culturally and socially constructed? How do issues of agency and structure come into play in Ukraine? Which subjectivities were brought into existence by Ukraine crisis discourses? Chapters explore the participation of women in Euromaidan, identity shifts in the Crimean Tatar community and diaspora politics, discourses related to corruption, anti-Soviet partisan warfare, and the annexation of Crimea, as well as long distance impacts of the crisis.
Digital Memory in Brazil draws on the results of three case studies to determine the strategies and practices applied by the Brazilian far-right government of Bolsonaro (2019-2023) to construct a negationist digital memory of the Brazilian dictatorship.
Corruption has long been identified as a governance challenge, yet it took states until the 1990s to adopt binding agreements combating it. While the rapid spread of anti-corruption treaties appears to mark a global consensus, a closer look reveals that not all regional and international organizations move on similar trajectories. This book seeks to explain similarities and differences between international anti-corruption agreements. In this volume Lohaus develops a comprehensive analytical framework to compare international agreements in the areas of prevention, criminalization, jurisdiction, domestic enforcement and international cooperation. Outcomes range from narrow enforcement cooperation to broad commitments that often lack follow-up mechanisms. Lohaus argues that agreements vary because they are designed to signal anti-corruption commitment to different audiences. To demonstrate such different approaches to anti-corruption, he draws on two starkly different cases, the Organization of American States and the African Union. Contributing to debates on decision-making in international organizations, this work showcases how global governance is shaped by processes of diffusion that involve state and non-state actors. The book highlights challenges as well as chances linked to the patchwork of international rules. It will be of great interest to students and scholars of IR theory, global governance, international organizations and regionalism.
Comprehensively laying out the concept of crimilegality, this book presents a novel perspective on the relationship between what is conventionally termed organised crime and political order in the contemporary developing world. In hybrid crimilegal orders the moral, normative and social boundaries between legality and illegality-criminality are blurred, and through the violation of the official law, the illegal-criminal sphere of social life becomes legitimate and morally acceptable, while the legal turns illegitimate and immoral. Several examples of crimilegality and crimilegal governance in Colombia and Nigeria, including in relation to armed conflict termination, are used to illustrate these complex processes.