Human nature and morality in the anti-corruption discourse of transparency international

Public Administration and Development

Volumn 32, Issue 1, 2012, Pages 109-128

  Gebel, Anja C ^a  

^a ABERYSTWYTH UNIVERSITY   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

Anti corruption; Corruption; Ethics; Human nature; Integrity; Morality; Self interested rational actor; Transparency International

Indexed keywords

CORRUPTION; ETHICS; HUMAN BEHAVIOR; INSTITUTIONAL FRAMEWORK; MORALITY; NONGOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATION; POLICY STRATEGY; POLITICAL DISCOURSE;

EID: 84856291659     PISSN: 02712075     EISSN: 1099162X     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1002/pad.1604     Document Type: Article

References (98)

1. Abrahamsen R. 2000. Disciplining Democracy: Development Discourse and Good Governance in Africa. Zed Books: London.
2. Andersson S, Heywood PM. 2009. The politics of perception: use and abuse of Transparency International's approach to measuring corruption. Political Studies 57(4): 746-767.
3. Blaug R. 2010. How Power Corrupts: Cognition and Democracy in Organisations. Palgrave Macmillan: Basingstoke.
4. Blundo G, Olivier de Sardan JP (with Arifari NB and Tidjani Alou M). 2006. Everyday Corruption and the State: Citizens and Public Officials in Africa. Zed Books: London.
5. Bracking S. 2007. Corruption and Development: The Anti-Corruption Campaigns. Palgrave Macmillan: Basingstoke.
6. Bracking S. 2009. Political economies of corruption beyond liberalism: an interpretative view of Zimbabwe. Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography 30: 35-51.
7. Bratsis P. 2003. The construction of corruption, or rules of separation and illusions of purity in bourgeois societies. Social Text 77(21/4): 9-33.
8. Brown E, Cloke J. 2004. Neoliberal reform, governance and corruption in the south: assessing the international anti-corruption crusade. Antipode 36(2): 272-294.
9. Bukovansky M. 2006. The hollowness of anti-corruption discourse. Review of International Political Economy 13(2): 181-209.
10. Chouliaraki L, Fairclough N. 1999. Discourse in late modernity: rethinking critical discourse analysis. Edinburgh University Press: Edinburgh.
11. Colonomos A. 2005. The morality of belief in the profits of virtue. International Social Science Journal 57 (185): 457-467.
12. Das J, Di Rienzo C. 2010. Tourism competitiveness and corruption: a cross-country analysis. Tourism Economics 16(3): 477-492.
13. De Jong E, Bogmans C. 2011. Does corruption discourage international trade? European Journal of Political Economy 27: 385-398.
14. De Maria W. 2007. Does African corruption exist? African Journal of Business Ethics 2(1): 1-9.
15. De Maria W. 2008. Measurements and markets: deconstructing the corruption perception index. Journal of Public Sector Management 21(7): 777-797.
16. De Sousa L. 2005. Transparency International in search of a constituency: the franchising of the global anticorruption movement. ANU Discussion Papers, Policy and Governance 5(14).
17. De Sousa L. 2010. Anti-corruption agencies: between empowerment and irrelevance. Crime, Law and Social Change 53: 5-22.
18. De Sousa L, Larmour E. 2009. Transparency International: global franchising and the war of information against corruption. In Research Companion to Corruption in Organizations, Burke RJ, Cooper CL (eds). Edward Elgar Publishing: Abingdon. 269-284.
19. Doig A, McIvor S. 2003. The National Integrity System: assessing corruption and reform. Public Administration and Development 23: 317-332.
20. Doig A, Watt A, Williams R. 2007. Why do developing country anti-corruption commissions fail to deal with corruption? Understanding the three dilemmas of organisational development, performance expectation, and donor and government cycles. Public Administration and Development 27: 251-259.
21. Duncan N. 2006. The non-perception based measurement of corruption: a review of issues and methods from a policy perspective. In Measuring Corruption, Sampford C, Shacklock A, Connors C, Galtung F (eds). Ashgate: Aldershot; 131-161.
22. Frankena WF. 1966. The concept of morality. The Journal of Philosophy 63(21): 688-696.
23. Galtung F. 2006. Measuring the immeasurable: boundaries and functions of (macro) corruption. In Measuring Corruption, Sampford C, Shacklock A, Connors C, Galtung F (eds). Ashgate: Aldershot; 101-130.
24. Génaux M. 2004. Social sciences and the evolving concept of corruption. Crime, Law & Social Change 42: 13-24.
25. Gundlach E, Paldam M. 2009. The transition of corruption: from poverty to honesty. Economics Letters 103(3): 146-148.
26. Gupta A 1995. Blurred boundaries: the discourse of corruption, the culture of politics and the imagined state. American Ethnologist 22: 375-402.
27. Harrison G. 2004. The World Bank and Africa: The Construction of Governance States. Routledge: London.
28. Heald S. 2007. Controlling crime and corruption from below: Sungusungu in Kenya. International Relations 21(2): 183-199.
29. Heeks R. 2007. Why anti-corruption initiatives fail: technology transfer and contextual collision. In Corruption and Development: The Anti-Corruption Campaigns, Bracking S (ed.). Palgrave Macmillan: Basingstoke; 258-272.
30. Hindess B. 2005. Investigating international anti-corruption. Third World Quarterly 26(8): 1389-1398.
31. Honneth A. 1992. Integrity and disrespect: principles of a conception of morality based on the theory of recognition. Political Theory 20(2): 187-201.
32. Interview with TI-Secretariat Official 1. 12 October 2010. TI-Secretariat, Berlin.
33. Interview with TI-Secretariat Official 2. 18 October 2010. TI-Secretariat, Berlin.
34. Interview with TI-Secretariat Official 3. 19 October 2010. TI-Secretariat, Berlin.
35. Interview with TI-Secretariat Official 4. 20 October 2010. TI-Secretariat, Berlin.
36. Interview with TI-Secretariat Official 5. 22 October 2010. TI-Secretariat, Berlin.
37. Interview with TI-Secretariat Official 6. 25 October 2010. TI-Secretariat, Berlin.
38. Interview with TI-Secretariat Official 7. 26 October 2010. TI-Secretariat, Berlin.
39. Johnston M. 2005. Syndromes of Corruption: Wealth, Power, and Democracy. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge.
40. Judge WQ, McNatt DB, Xu W. 2011. The antecedents and effects of national corruption: a meta-analysis. Journal of World Business 46(1): 93-103.
41. Klitgaard R. 1988. Controlling Corruption. University of California Press: Berkeley and Los Angeles.
42. Knack S. 2007. Measuring corruption: a critique of indicators in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Journal of Public Policy 27(3): 255-291.
43. Kpundeh SJ. 2004. Building State Capacity in Africa. World Bank Publications: Washington.
44. Krastev I. 2004. Shifting Obsessions: Three Essays on the Politics of Anticorruption. CEU Press: Budapest.
45. Larmour P 2005. Civilizing techniques: Transparency International and the spread of anti-corruption. ANU Discussion Papers, Policy and Governance 5(11).
46. Lauer H. 2007. Depreciating African political culture. Journal of Black Studies 38: 288-307.
47. Lindsey T, Dick H (eds). 2002. Corruption in Asia: Rethinking the Governance Paradigm. The Federation Press: Sydney.
48. Lipset SM, Lenz GS. 2000. Corruption, culture, and markets. In Culture Matters, Harrison LE, Huntington SP (eds). Basic Books: New York.
49. Marquette H. 2003. Corruption, Politics and Development: The Role of the World Bank. Palgrave Macmillan: New York.
50. Marschall M. 2002. Transparency International: Ein Beispiel für erfolgreiches globales Engagement transnationaler NGOs. In Zivilgesellschaft international. Alte und neue NGOs, Frantz C, Zimmer A (eds). Leske + Budrich: Opladen; 185-197.
51. Melgar N, Rossi M, Smith TW. 2010. The perception of corruption. International Journal of Public Opinion Research 22(1): 120-131.
52. Montinola G, Jackman RW. 2002. Sources of corruption: a cross-country study. British Journal of Political Science 32(1): 147-170.
53. Murphy J. 2011. Capitalism and transparency. Critical Perspectives on International Business 7(2): 125-141.
54. Nadelmann EA. 1990. Global prohibition regimes: the evolution of norms in international society. International Organization 44(4): 479-526.
55. Olivier de Sardan JP. 1999. A moral economy of corruption in Africa? The Journal of Modern African Studies 37(1): 25-52.
56. Persson A, Rothstein B, Teorell J. 2010. The failure of anti-corruption policies: a theoretical mischaracterization of the problem. QoG Working Paper Series 19. Available online at [Accessed on 29 September 2011].
57. Philp M. 1997. Defining political corruption. Political Studies 45(3): 436-462.
58. Pierce S. 2006. Looking like a state: colonialism and the discourse of corruption in Northern Nigeria. Comparative Studies in Society and History 48(4): 887-914.
59. Polzer T. 2001. Corruption: deconstructing the World Bank discourse. LSE DESTIN Working Paper Series 01(18).
60. Roden J. 2010. The international anti-corruption crusade: neo-liberal institutional structures, moralization, and social capital. Undercurrent Journal VII(I): 12-22.
61. Routley L. 2010. The negotiation of 'corruption' by NGOs in Eastern Nigeria: engagements with local culture and global governance. Doctoral thesis, Department of International Politics, Aberystwyth University. CADAIR Electronic Version.
62. Sahaa S, Goundera R, Su J. 2009. The interaction effect of economic freedom and democracy on corruption: a panel cross-country analysis. Economics Letters 105(2): 173-176.
63. Sampson S. 2004. Integrity warriors: global morality and the anticorruption movement in the Balkans. Available online at (permission to cite as paper). [Accessed on 29 September 2011].
64. Searle JR. 1995. The Construction of Social Reality. The Free Press: New York.
65. Serra D. 2006. Empirical determinants of corruption: a sensitivity analysis. Public Choice 126: 225-256.
66. Shah A, Schacter M. 2004. Combating corruption: look before you leap. Finance and Development 41(4): 40-43.
67. Szeftel M. 1998. Misunderstanding African politics: corruption and the governance agenda. Review of African Political Economy 25(76): 221-240.
68. Tagesschau Chat. 2007. Peter Eigen, Transparency International (chat transcript), 25.01.2007. [Accessed on September 2011].
69. Tänzler D. 2010a. Transparency International. Von der Moralinstitution zur Politikberatungsagentur-Professionalisierungsstrategien in einer globalen Nonpofit-Organisation. Crime & Culture Discussion Paper Series 2.
70. Tänzler D. 2010b. Transparency International. Von der Moralinstitution zur Politikberatungsagentur-Professionalisierungsstrategien in einer globalen Nonpofit-Organisation. In Transparenz: Multidisziplinäre Durchsichten durch Phänomene und Theorien des Undurchsichtigen, Jansen SA, Schröter E, Stehr N (eds). VS Verlag: Wiesbaden.
71. Transparency International. 2000. Confronting Corruption: The Elements of a National Integrity System (TI Source Book). Transparency International: Berlin.
72. TI. 2009a. Making anti-corruption regulation effective for the private sector. Policy Position. 9.
73. TI. 2009b. Strengthening corporate governance to combat corruption. Policy Position. 3.
74. TI. 2009c. The anti-corruption plain language guide.
75. TI. 2010. Global corruption barometer (homepage). [Accessed on 28 September 2011].
76. TI. d. CPI, press release, "corruption threatens global economic recovery, greatly challenges countries in conflict". [Accessed on 14 July 2010].
77. TI. e. Global priorities, parliamentary ethics and accountability. [Accessed on 28 September 2010].
78. TI. f. Global priorities, public contracting. [Accessed on 28 September 2010].
79. TI. g. Global priorities, enhancing standards in the private sector. [Accessed on 29 September 2010].
80. TI. h. Frequently asked questions about Transparency International. [Accessed on 27 September 2010].
81. TI. i. Frequently asked questions about corruption. [Accessed on 27 September 2010].
82. TI. k. FAQ's for journalists-facts and figures on corruption. [Accessed on 29 September 2010].
83. TI. m. Transparency International calls for closing of ethics gap in code of conduct for European commissioners (Press Release 12 May 2010). [Accessed on 29 September 2011].
84. TI. n. Policy and research. [Accessed on 28 September 2011].
85. TI. p. Global priorities: political corruption. [Accessed on 28 September 2011].
86. TI. q. About us. [Accessed on 27 August 2010].
87. Treisman D. 2000. The causes of corruption: a cross-national analysis. Journal of Public Economics 76: 399-457.
88. United Nations Development Programme. 2004. Anti-corruption practice note.
89. United Nations Development Programme. 2008. Corruption and development: anti-corruption interventions for poverty reduction, realization of the MDGs and promoting sustainable development.
90. Warren ME. 2004. What does corruption mean in a democracy? American Journal of Political Science 48(2): 328-343.
91. Weaver C. 2008. Hypocrisy Trap: The World Bank and the Poverty of Reform. Princeton University Press: Woodstock.
92. Wilhelm P. 2002. International validation of the corruption perception index: implications for business ethics and entrepreneurship education. Journal of Business Ethics 35: 177-189.
93. Williams D. 1999. Constructing the Economic Space: The World Bank and the Making of Homo Oeconomicus. Millennium: Journal of International Studies 28(1): 79-99.
94. Williams D. 2008. The World Bank and Social Transformation in International Politics: Liberalism, Governance and Sovereignty. Routledge: New York.
95. World Bank. 2007. Strengthening World Bank group engagement on governance and anticorruption. Available online at [Accessed on 29 September 2011].
96. World Bank. 1989. IBRD articles of agreement. Available online at [Accessed on 29 September 2011].
97. World Bank Independent Evaluations Group (IEG). 2006. Governance and anti-corruption: ways to enhance the World Bank's impact. Available online at [Accessed on 29 September 2011].
98. Wrage A, Wrage S. 2005. Multinational enterprises as "moral entrepreneurs" in a global prohibition regime against corruption. International Studies Perspectives 6: 316-324.