At War with Corruption began as a biography of Bill Price, the U.S. attorney and Republican candidate for high office who spearheaded prosecutions in the most pervasive public corruption spectacle in American history: the Oklahoma county commissioner scandal. Price’s determination to root out the rascals and restore faith in governance branded him as the biggest corruption buster in the state’s history. Price’s career in law and politics serves as a portal into corruption in Oklahoma. Episodes in that narrative include land swindles (soonerism) at the dawn of Oklahoma history; theft of Native Americans’ property and steamrolling of their cultures that reached a nadir in the Osage murders; the Supreme Court scandal of 1964–65; Leo Winters’ alleged misuse of state taxes (what was the treasurer doing with the people’s money?); Governor David Hall’s trial and conviction on charges of extortion; prosecutions of drug syndicates, Penn Square Bank insiders, and Oklahoma Corporation Commissioners on the take; and the systemic bribery in county governance that inspired this book. Price shatters the myth that Oklahomans have been uniquely tolerant of, and susceptible to, corruption. He blames structural flaws and inadequate legislation for tempting law-abiding citizens to heed the call of their darker angels. Although Price failed in his gubernatorial and congressional campaigns, he has influenced policy through philanthropies that set a high bar for civic engagement. At War with Corruption reveals the sinister side of human nature. Yet its intention is not to depress, but rather to uplift and to show what is possible when public servants work together to frame effective laws and promote justice.

Waging War on Corruption is a fascinating look at worldwide corruption by a leader of the global anticorruption movement. Frank Vogl draws on twenty years of experience to share a history filled stories of activists, victims, and villains; strengthening our understanding of the complexities of corruption with wisdom and integrity.

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.

Despite intensified governmental and public efforts at corruption control in recent years, official transgression continues to surface in various ways of abusing the unique power and trust that a government holds. Preventing Corruption in Asia addresses a number of crucial questions: -What institutional arrangements are necessary to ensure a clean and honest government? - What self-regulatory capabilities must government institutions develop in order to maintain integrity? -How should a sense of ethical responsibility be instilled in the civil services? -Do special anti-corruption agencies help keep government clean? -How will a regulatory framework of official conduct work properly? -How useful are anti-corruption campaigns in containing corruption? Focusing on a number of carefully selected countries in the Asia and Pacific region, the book sets as its focal point the choice of institutional design in preventing corruption, rather than treating corruption as a practical or technical problem to be corrected by strong political will and good anti-corruption policy measures. While focusing on institutional designs and policy choices, the book also examines other aspects of clean government such as the social environment, legal and regulatory framework, role of the public, and the impact of culture.

The world has been bombarded in recent years with images of the luxurious lives and wealth of corrupt oligarchs and kleptocrats, amassed at the expense of ordinary people. Such images exploit our feelings of injustice, are taken as indicative of moral decay, and inspire a desire to purge our economies of dirty money, objects, and people. But why do anti-corruption efforts routinely fail? What kind of world are they creating? Looking at luxury art, antiquities, superyachts, and populist politics, this book explores the connection between luxury and corruption, and offers an alternative to the received wisdom of how we tackle corruption.

A former senior mujahidin fighter teams up with an ex-counter terrorism analyst in this remarkable account from the frontlines of the jihad

This book brings together leading African scholars and researchers from various academic disciplines, cultures, religions, and generations. It examines how to better mobilise and influence the actions, behaviour and attitudes of citizens towards accountability, transparency, and probity, in order to strengthen Africa’s integrity, equity, and sustainable development. It serves to deepen and strategically add to current efforts to combat corruption, and clearly advocates that fighting corruption is the business of everyone. The role of ethics in society and the presence of leaders who ideally should be ethical, effective, and empathic are also important. This volume shows that corruption robs the poor, and will serve to enrich the reader’s philosophy of life.

Having engaged in an intensified war against corruption for more than four decades since the period of reform and opening up, China is now at a turning point in its anti-corruption agenda. Many believe that building government integrity has been a top-down process in China, and the anti-corruption strategies taken by the current administration seem to have confirmed it. This book challenges the view by analyzing local anti-corruption innovations in recent years and argues for the importance of bottom-up efforts in controlling corruption. The book attempts to answer the question of whether the rise of local anti-corruption innovations has helped China to pursue anti-corruption reform more effectively and, if so, why. It proceeds to analyze the major patterns of local anti-corruption innovations, the ways in which they have been initiated and implemented, and the factors influencing their success or failure. The book includes more than 400 cases of local innovative anti-corruption reforms in China in recent years. This book will be a useful reference for those interested in learning more about anti-corruption studies and also contributes to the study of corruption and anti-corruption reform in China by providing solid and fresh evidence of anti-corruption innovation by local governments.

Corruption and Anti-Corruption in Modern China collects essays from the scholars in their fields and examines the ongoing corruption in China by addressing this important topic from a historical perspective through a cooperative interdisciplinary research effort among Chinese-American scholars interested in the subject. Their scholarship makes a significant contribution through multi-faceted components from different fields such as history, economics, political science, criminal justice, and popular culture. The authors introduce and explore the theory and practice of policy patterns, political systems, and social institutions by identifying key issues in Chinese government and society contained within the larger framework of the international sphere. This book describes a historical transition when the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) maintained its forceful control of cities while the middle class reluctantly sacrificed its rights in exchange for retaining their economic benefits. To survive market economy, the party leadership became more flexible and was able to adapt to economic and social change. The CCP governments in our research responded to the rising demands and expectations of the society. They were willing and able to cope with the middle class by making a few compromises and following certain legal procedures in exchange for continuing political support. These practical comprises characterized a new political culture in PRC history since 1949. The book voices the complaints and resentments in the cities, and interprets government policies and legal practices. It emphasizes the consequence for governance, human rights, and commercial rule of law, all of which threatens the legitimacy of the CCP. It also suggests an important evolution of the CCP. The reform movement since the 1980s has not yet contributed significantly to the country’s democratic transformation or to its social stability. The leaders in the 1990s focused on liberal economic reform while discouraging and even stifling political reform. As a result, economic interest groups successfully established an alliance with CCP officials to control economic policy-making and to share political governance. In the 2010s, Chinese leaders have paid special attention to political scandals, corruption, and mismanagement in the government and in the Party.

In most countries, parliament has the constitutional mandate to both oversee government and to hold government to account; often, audit institutions, ombuds and anti-corruption agencies report to parliament, as a means of ensuring both their independence from government and reinforcing parliament's position at the apex of accountability institutions. At the same time, parliaments can also play a key role in promoting accountability, through constituency outreach, public hearings, and parliamentary commissions. This title will be of interest to parliamentarians and parliamentary staff, development practitioners, students of development and those interested in curbing corruption and improving governance in developing and developed countries alike.