(Assignment 3) Summary Sentences: Reflection and Reassessment: The Emerging Agenda of Corruption by Michael Johnston - Padmapriya Govindarajan

This paper attempts to reassess the way forward for corruption research bearing in mind the sustained tenacity of corruption as well as the difficulty in measurement.

Misplaced Consensus: Corruption came to be seen as varying among whole countries primarily in terms of extent rather than in kind. Many viewed the problem as existing mostly ‘out there’, in the poorer, warmer and less democratic parts of the world. It is, instead, ahistorical, indifferent to contrasts among and within societies, based on a limited conception of justice and the significance of politics and insufficiently critical of its own premises and origins. As a result, we have found it difficult to identify important, as opposed to more superficial, contrasts and similarities in corruption’s causes, processes, social significance and effects

Corruption as Core: Understanding such contrasts and their full social significance is complicated by the tendency to think of corruption as law- breaking activities, usually extending across public–private boundaries and as private- regarding misconduct that defies the rules and principles of the regime. But where corruption is systemic, and where it is the rule rather than the exception, many of the stated laws and principles are abstractions at best, or cynical evasions, with corruption being the core of a regime rather than a challenge to it. In those situations, calls for improved administration, a stronger civil society and greater ‘political will’ may be irrelevant at best and quite risky at worst.

Top Down: Pressure from inter national organisations, and from coalitions of aid and

trade partners, may seem a promising anti-corruption strategy, but at least with respect to

environmental policy and implementation the record suggests the result can be more corruption

Value Basis: A more subtle analysis of where ‘civic’ values and notions of account ability originate and of what sustains and under mines them would make for fascinating historical, developmental and comparative research.

Government Quality: If we hope to reduce corruption, what should take its place? A government with significantly less corruption, whatever that means in practice, would not necessarily be more just and accountable. One provocative and very promising perspective on the issue is to emphasise not just ‘corruption control’ but rather the quality of government

Remembering Political Roots: While many reformers have long seen corruption as defined by overarching moral values and have held that protecting government from political interference is a critical anti- corruption goal, a broader historical view might show that the very idea of corruption has political roots.

Inclusive Arguments: One clear and attain able goal, however, is to open up a much more polycentric debate. That will require, among other things, developing a conversation less dominated by affluent liberal democracies and the international institutions they have built, one that is more inclusive of arguments originating in other societies.

Summary Sentence: Corruption reform must be undertaken in a careful and inclusive manner, derived from arguments across a spectrum of societies, always bearing in mind the political roots and pervasiveness of the phenomenon and developing a conversation that cuts across societies rather than cutting them out.