Abstract
Although much research has been devoted to understanding corruption, strategies to control this abusive behavior have often been taken to be worldwide “best practices,” applicable universally. In Corruption, Contention, and Reform: The Power of Deep Democratization, Michael Johnston advocates a situational and gradual approach to reform. In doing so, he moves beyond anti-corruption measures that disregard the political and social contexts of societies, and encourages citizens to defend their interests and gradually create the conditions for a pluralistic, open, and accountable state.
The first part of the book is concerned with the factors underlying the persistence of corruption and the reasons behind the success of some measures and the futility of others. The second part presents a thorough diagnosis of types of “corruption syndromes” in different contexts together with the political and institutional changes that have been put forward in those contexts to counter corruption (Johnston, 2005). Johnston’s research cleverly assesses the vulnerabilities to corruption and the effects of reform for the following syndromes: Official Moguls in Egypt and Tunisia; Oligarchs and Clans in the Philippines; Elite Cartels in Argentina; and Influence Markets in France, Australia, and the United States. The logic of context-driven reform strategies is strengthened by the use of contemporary examples of these ideal types of corruption syndromes. The case analyses developed in Chapters 4 to 7 add depth to the analysis by identifying the variations in the classification of corruption across societies and showing that the syndromes do not necessarily follow a developmental sequence. Rather, the forms of corruption vary in their historical, cultural, economic, social, and political origins.
Throughout the book, Johnston focuses on the persistence of corruption despite successive anti-corruption reform attempts. His work adds to the literature the idea that corruption reform needs to be understood as a context-driven, long-term goal. Using country-level case studies matching the proposed typology of corruption syndromes, the author shows how to recognize contrasting corruption forms and clarifies the deep social and political forces needed to deal with corrupt practices. In showing how different types of corruption require different reform tasks in real scenarios, the book offers concrete examples of the difficulties of reform through building trust and sustaining citizen engagement.
What might contrasting types of corruption problems tell us about existing and future reform scenarios? What does deep democratization mean in practice? These are some of the questions Johnston addresses in the book. He moves from identifying variants of corruption syndromes to recognizing the role and importance of politics in anti-corruption strategies. At this point, as the author revisits the conceptual definitions of corruption, the corruption syndrome typology, and reform, he introduces the four key tasks related to enabling “deep democratization” processes. The author offers deep democratization both as a political process motivated by citizens and a political agenda comprising a set of tasks, thus pushing for change driven by citizens. The identified tasks for achieving deep democratization include increasing pluralism, opening up safe political and economic space, reform activism, and maintaining accountability.
The democratization tasks required for achieving continuous, indirect, and ultimate long-term change vary across societies depending on the particular syndrome of corruption they experience, and their degree of fragility. The author argues that institutional fragility poses problems to reformers, complicating the question of what to do and not to do about corruption in various scenarios. Johnston warns that reform processes are dependent on a functioning state and legal framework and existing social and political trust.
Johnston’s key argument about reform is that building trust in better government is possible and that people have a stake in helping built it. Reform in his view depends not on a prescriptive list of best practices but on a sequence of tasks aimed at achieving a workable level of trust that would enable change driven by citizens and socially rooted interests. He argues for the importance of building this trust through providing basic services and assessing the progress of government performance. Evidence from indicators of government performance can be benchmarked against data from comparable agencies and jurisdictions and set a precedent for moving beyond personal accountability and dishonest institutions to making accomplishments visible. In this way, the book presents a useful guide for practitioners choosing to put into practice the use of indicators of government performance to address corruption and foster dynamic democratization. Johnston ends the case study analysis by encouraging reformers to revisit a fundamental mantra: avoid making things worse and show positive changes are underway to build trust among citizens who wish to take a stake in reform.
Johnston concludes that anti-corruption strategies solely focused on building open institutions become pointless without strong and sustained citizen involvement. The author makes an appealing point by reassessing the role of social organizations in deep democratization processes while suggesting reformers the need to develop a combination of incentives targeted to multiple constituencies to engage citizens on several levels (Wilson, 1973). Building a strong and engaged civil society means fostering pluralism to the political arena, seeking and protecting safe political and economic spaces, engaging in sustained reform activism, or maintaining demands for accountability. Reformers should aim at “generating the conditions for citizens to develop the capacity and willingness to advocate for their interests and defend themselves by political means” (p. 234). The value of this concluding chapter is to emphasize the idea that the deep democratization can be seen as taking steps in a consistent direction, not as specific corruption control tactics or anti-corruption remedies.
Corruption, Contention, and Reform: The Power of Deep Democratization is an exceptionally interesting book written in a clear and open style. The author’s accumulated research and experience in anti-corruption from an international perspective makes this book almost unique in its assessment of alternatives for diagnosing and treating corruption over time. Researchers will certainly benefit from the revisited typology of syndromes, the qualitative methodology adopted to give depth to the illustration of syndromes and reform, the evidence about how syndromes can coexist within regions and levels of society and the implications of such coexistence for reform. The book’s significance extends beyond the diagnosis of corruption and reform, as an excellent resource for practitioners, community members, elected officials, and students of public administration around the world.