Recent corporate scandals have highlighted the importance of both public sector initiatives and sound internal company policies in the fight against fraud and corruption. This book discusses the efforts of Western and Asian companies to develop good standards of business conduct in their East Asian operations. It contains case studies from a wide range of corporate settings which describe practical examples of best practices in programmes dealing with a range of topics including ethics standards and codes of business practice, anti-bribery measures, reporting and warning procedures.

Reveals how meaningful corruption control by authoritarian regimes is surprisingly common and follows a different playbook than democratic anti-corruption reform.

Corruption in Asia ranges from the venal rent-seeking of local officials to the million-dollar bribes received by corrupt politicians; from excessive position-related consumption to future job offers in the private sector for compliant public servants; from money-laundering to ‘white elephant’ projects that do little more than line the pockets of developers and their political partners. The Routledge Handbook of Corruption in Asia addresses the theories, issues and trends in corruption and anticorruption reform that have emerged from this diverse experience. The book is divided into four major parts: corruption and the state; corruption and economic development; corruption and society; and controlling corruption: strategies, successes and failures. Chapters compare and contrast corruption in different social and institutional contexts, examine both successful and unsuccessful attempts to control it, and consider what lessons can be drawn from these Asian experiences. This academically rigorous and insightful book will be of interest to a wide range of students and scholars, particularly those of Asian studies, politics and sociology.

The recently-adopted OECD convention outlawing bribery of foreign public officials is welcome evidence of how much progress has been made in the battle against corruption. The financial crisis in East Asia is an indication of how much remains to be done. Corruption is by no means a new issue but it has only recently emerged as a global issue. With the end of the Cold War, the pace and breadth of the trends toward democratization and international economic integration accelerated and expanded globally. Yet corruption could slow or even reverse these trends, potentially threatening economic development and political stability in some countries. As the global implications of corruption have grown, so has the impetus for international action to combat it. In addition to efforts in the OECD, the Organization of American States, the World Trade Organization, and the United Nations General Assembly, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund have both begun to emphasize corruption as an impediment to economic development. This book includes a chapter by the Chairman of the OECD Working Group on Bribery discussing the evolution of the OECD convention and what is needed to make it effective. Other chapters address the causes and consequences of corruption, including the impact on investment and growth and the role of multinational corporations in discouraging bribery. The final chapter summarizes and also discusses some of the other anticorruption initiatives that either have been or should be adopted by governments, multilateral development banks, and other international organizations.

Multilateral and bilateral aid agencies now direct much of their East Asia activities to so-called ''governance'' reform. Almost every major development project in the region must now be justified in these terms and will usually involve an element of legal institutional reform, anti-corruption initiatives or strengthening of civil society - and often a mix of all of these. Most are, in fact, major exercises in social engineering. Aid agencies and major multilateral players like the IMF, the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank, are attempting not just to improve governance systems and combat corruption but, implicitly, to restructure entire national political systems and administrative structures. ''Conditionality'' puts real weight behind these projects. If successful, they could transform the face of East Asia. Defining ''governance'' and understanding ''corruption'' are therefore not minor issues of terminology. However, a great deal of optimism is required to believe that social engineering for good governance will succeed in either Indonesia or Vietnam within the foreseeable future. In Indonesia, there is neither the political will nor the mechanism to act, since the legal system is itself utterly corrupted. Better laws have been passed, but they fail in implementation. In Vietnam the problems are somewhat different, but the outcomes are similar. Corruption is widely recognised to be a major political, social and economic issue - even by the Party itself - but few cases are ever tried. The bureaucracy (including the legal system) and the party are so complicit that reform is impossible. These systemic problems point to the basic flaw in the good governance agenda and strategy. A politically powerful alliance of foreign and domestic interests is necessary. Foreign multilateral agencies, donors and NGOs are able to set the international policy agenda, but their domestic allies are politically weak. In the absence of rule of law, the basic institutions of these transitional societies remain largely as they were and there is, as yet, no viable alternative system in either Indonesia or Vietnam. The argument of this book is that more might be achieved sooner by much better understanding of political, legal, commercial and social dynamics in Indonesia and Vietnam, not as they are meant to be but as they are. Multilateral agencies, donors, NGOs, business firms and scholars on the one hand; and local politicians, bureaucrats, business people, lawyers, journalists, academics, and NGOs on the other hand have much usefully to discuss. Only out of that dialogue, a dialogue between the world as it is and the world of ideals, can steady progress be made. This book examines these problems initially in an abstract theoretical sense before testing the frameworks thus established through a series of case studies of Indonesia and Vietnam, two very different Asian states: one (Vietnam) still socialist but in difficult transition from command economy to a limited market structure; the other (Indonesia) embracing a market economy and an emerging democratic system; one with a Confucian legal and political tradition, the other not; one with a socialist, the other a civil law, legal system. The book is divided into three parts. The first, ''Frameworks'', establishes some theoretical approaches to the problem of corruption and governance (including a East European example). The second part looks at case studies from Indonesia; and the third part looks specifically at Vietnam. Relevant legislation and judicial decisions can be found in the table of cases and a detailed glossary and list of abbreviations will assist readers unfamiliar with the countries under examination.ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTORSIbrahim Assegaf is the Executive Director of the Centre for Indonesian Law and Policy Studies (Pusat Studi Hukum dam Kebijakan Indonesia) and the Managing Director of the Indonesian law website, http://www.hukumonline.com. He is also a member of the Steering Committee for the Establishment of the Anti-Corruption Commission and for the UNDP''s Partnership for Governance Reform. Paul Brietzke is a Professor at Valparaiso University Law School (USA) and from January 1999 to August 2000 was Legal Advisor at the then Ministry of Justice of Indonesia in Jakarta. Howard Dick is an Associate Professor in the Australian Centre for International Business, University of Melbourne, Australia. John Gillespie is Associate Professor in the Law School, Deakin University, Melbourne, Australia. Gary Goodpaster is Professor of Law Emeritus, University of California School of Law, Davis; and former Chief of Party, Partnership for Economic Growth, a joint economic policy development project of USAID and the Government of Indonesia. Leslie Holmes is a Professor of Political Science and Director of the Contemporary Europe Research Centre at the University of Melbourne, Australia. He is also the President of the International Council for Central and East European Studies. Kanishka Jayasuriya is Senior Research Fellow, South East Asia Research Centre, City University of Hong Kong Tim Lindsey is Director of the Asian Law Centre and an Associate Professor in the Law School, both at the University of Melbourne, Australia. Elizabeth Maitland is Associate Director of the Australian Centre for International Business, University of Melbourne. Pip Nicholson is Associate Director (Vietnam) of the Asian Law Centre and a Senior Fellow of the Law School, both at the University of Melbourne, Australia. Veronica Taylor is Professor of Law and Director of the Asian Law Center, University of Washington, Seattle.

Bringing together contributions on the nature of corruption in East and Southeast Asia, this edited volume examines the means of limiting and ultimately eliminating corruption at a national and international level. Taking a country by country approach the text explores: the concept of corruption, now and in the past recent experiences of Asian countries at the macro- and micro-levels practical local and international measures to constrain corruption. The volume outlines key principles of good governance and the policies and practices essential for their application. As such, it represents an extremely valuable contribution to our understanding of corruption and how to tackle the problem.

This collection examines anti-corruption campaigns and argues that they have often resulted in perverse and unintended consequences. The book examines how corruption has been addressed (and sometimes tolerated) in Africa, Asia, Latin America and East & Central Europe to interrogate government policy and question development discourse and practice.

Corruption is linked to a wide range of developmental issues, including undermining democratic institutions, slowing economic development and contributing to government instability, poverty and inequality. It is estimated that corruption costs more than 5 per cent of global GDP, and that more than one trillion US dollars are paid in bribes each year. This book unpacks the concept of corruption, its political and ethical influences, its measurement, commitments to combat corruption and ways that this is being attempted. Building on the research on the nature, causes and consequences of corruption, this book analyses international anti-corruption interventions in particular. It discusses approaches to focus efforts to tackle corruption in developing countries on where they are most likely to be successful. The efforts of the UK are considered as a detailed case study, with comparisons brought in as necessary from other countries’ and multilateral institutions’ anti-corruption efforts. Bridging a range of disciplines, Anti-Corruption in International Development will be of interest to students and scholars of international development, public administration, management, international relations, politics and criminal justice.

Fundamental changes within economies are needed to create arm''s-length relations between governments, corporations, and banks. We are taking risks when investing in the future, and risk-taking demands openness and truthfulness from the agents we employ. If investors and accountants can concur on the degree of disclosure that is morally right we may come to some global agreement on what constitutes corruption OCo but to do this we have to bring together those who advocate profit-making with those who see this as usury; and we have to care for the future in novel ways OCo unknown in the past OCo so as to allow firms to be locally inefficient (apparently) while preserving the environment. This book looks widely at the prevailing situation in Asia and considers how little some governments are doing to guide their institutions towards probity and transparency. While fundamental changes are needed around the globe, it is in the developing nations that there is scope for radical change in the near future, as their institutions are re-created to meet the modern world. Once developed and functioning their managers will have the opportunity to facilitate and re-direct the institutions in the developed world, which happen to be more conservative than their own. Contents: The OECD Convention and Asia (E Quinones); The Asian Money Laundering Explosion (P Lilley); Corruption in Context (L Palmier); Monopoly Rights and Wrongs: Two Forms of Intellectual Property Rights Violations in Asia (H-B Cheah); Culture and Level of Industrialization as Determinants of Corruption in Asia (D Sculli); The Economy of Seepage and Leakage in Asia: The Most Dangerous Issue (G Etienne); Combating Corruption in Southeast Asia (C Wescott); The Nature of Corruption Hidden Culture: The Case of Korea (Y-L Moon & G N McLean); Comparative Study of Anti-Corruption Systems, Efforts and Strategies in Asian Countries: Focusing on Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, and Korea (T Kim); and other papers. Readership: Final-year undergraduates, master''s and MBA students in ethics and social science; researchers on Asian topics, managers and policy-makers."

Why has China grown so fast for so long despite vast corruption? In China's Gilded Age, Yuen Yuen Ang maintains that all corruption is harmful, but not all types of corruption hurt growth. Ang unbundles corruption into four varieties: petty theft, grand theft, speed money, and access money. While the first three types impede growth, access money - elite exchanges of power and profit - cuts both ways: it stimulates investment and growth but produces serious risks for the economy and political system. Since market opening, corruption in China has evolved toward access money. Using a range of data sources, the author explains the evolution of Chinese corruption, how it differs from the West and other developing countries, and how Xi's anti-corruption campaign could affect growth and governance. In this formidable yet accessible book, Ang challenges one-dimensional measures of corruption. By unbundling the problem and adopting a comparative-historical lens, she reveals that the rise of capitalism was not accompanied by the eradication of corruption, but rather by its evolution from thuggery and theft to access money. In doing so, she changes the way we think about corruption and capitalism, not only in China but around the world.