Corruption and Development

Since the 1990s, anti-corruption discourse and policy has become an unquestioned moral crusade, but campaigns that focus on eliminating corruption often have negative effects for good governance and political cultures across the developing world. This collection critically examines policy and practice in the field of corruption and anti-corruption, interrogating development assistance policy for anti-corruption as well as the implementation, meanings and practicies of policy across a range of case studies. Exploring the ways that corruption is addressed across Africa, Asia, Latin America and East and Central Europe, the book argues that a single-minded focus on corruption within the development industry precludes more substantive political programmes, such as democratization. It examines the implicit agendas that anti-corruption campaigns serve - the assumption of Northern supremacy - and places the debate on political corruption in historical perspective, highlighting the racialized framing of the problem. The problematizing of government policies on corruption and the deconstruction of the discourse of the global anti-corruption campaigns also shed light on the nature of the development industry as a whole. Includes a Foreword by Deryck Brown, Commonwealth Secretariat, UK.