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Theme-based book review: Public-sector corruption
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Theme-based book review: Public-sector corruption

Christopher L. Atkinson
International Journal of Public Administration, Vol.44, pp.262-267
44
2021
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/01900692.2019.1672732

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Abstract

Dr. Adrian Blau recently wrote, “public-office corruption can be extremely damaging. It can be particularly harmful to poor people and women. It can kill. Understanding, explaining, and reducing it are literally vital” (2019, p. 201–202). Corruption is usually thought of narrowly – as bribes taken by weak-willed public officials from business people – but the concept is more nuanced than this. Corruption can include the distortion of judgment, and limited viewpoints on complicated issues (Blau, 2019). Corruption can result in the elimination of voices from the public sphere, so that the desires of elites are easier to realize. Corruption as a symptom or antecedent of governance failure has been an ongoing theme in political science and public administration literature. From the perspective of PA, corruption has often involved case study material for the sake of teaching ethics and values in the public service: prevention of official misconduct through training and indoctrination of values systems, or compliance approaches that identify corrupt behaviors and punish offenders. As a matter for governance, corruption is known to exist – to underlay the foundations of public institutions in small or grand ways at various times in the history of organizations and societies – and it is never far away from the use of public power and resources. Internationally, corruption is tied to a lack of good governance and political instability, which can yield fragile and failed states; failed states can evidence serious threats to humanity and civilization. There is a tendency to want to solve problems with aid, but money does not alleviate the problem of corruption. Quality of governance is tied to the effectiveness of bureaucracy, but politicization can threaten a superior, citizen-oriented system based upon merit (Khan, 2016). A focus on economic development to the detriment of other societal priorities has led to an environment in many cases of crony capitalism, yielding corruption in public and private venues. Corruption in the public sector lowers trust in the private sector as well (Gillanders & Neselevska, 2018). As public resources grow scarce and the public sphere seems unstable, interest in corruption might grow as people look for a scapegoat to blame for negative outcomes. We search for some guardian to cease the downward spiral, but to no avail. Even the media, lauded in earlier times as a watchdog for public interests, is often unable to respond to that charge, due to its close connection with both business and political interests (Choi, 2018). Discussions about corruption and governance have become more difficult due to tribalism and reticence to engage opposing viewpoints. Framing the problem of public corruption in today’s reality-averse contexts is a prospect that has become tense and fraught with allegations of political bias. It is worth suggesting though that many have become desensitized to the problem of corruption, and willing to explain it away if it will allow the continuation of a narrative that is aligned with at least some of their belief system. However, this is a problem that must be addressed. Fourie (2018) suggested that corruption undermines society’s very social fabric, as the public grows in apathy, unwilling to challenge corrupt behaviors – this undermines the legitimacy of institutions (2018). In the practitioner community as well as the academy, ignoring official corruption leads to an increasingly precarious position for civilization as a whole. Too much is at stake. This essay considers three recent books on the topic of public-sector corruption: Corruption and Corruption Control: Democracy in the Balance, by Staffan Andersson and Frank Anechiarico; The Challenge of Governance in South Sudan: Corruption, Peacebuilding, and Foreign Intervention, edited by Steven C. Roach and Derrick K. Hudson; and Corruption Prevention and Governance in Hong Kong, by Ian Scott and Ting Gong.

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