IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/jbuset/v181y2022i1d10.1007_s10551-021-04922-0.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Games of Truth in the Age of Transparency: International Organisations and the Construction of Corruption

Author

Listed:
  • Roan Alexander Snyman

    (University of Stellenbosch)

Abstract

Corruption is one of the most intractable problems that the world is faced with and its reported impact is widespread and pervasive. Since the mid-1990s, international efforts to combat this problem expanded significantly, driven by the involvement governments, international financial institutions and non-governmental organisations. The objective of this article is to use Michel Foucault’s work in a critical analysis of the international fight against corruption. This analysis is centred on Foucault’s concept of governmentality, as well as his notions of knowledge, power and ethics. The primary focus is on the role played by the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and Transparency International in the proliferation of international anti-corruption discourse and practices. Furthermore, South Africa will be used as a case study to unpack the historical and contextual factors that play a role in the legitimisation of corruption. As will be shown in this assessment, without adequately understanding the local factors that stimulate corruption and the other societal characteristics that serve to compound its pervasiveness, internationally driven anti-corruption initiatives have limited scope for success. Corruption will persist where there is a lack of resonance between international anti-corruption ideals and local norms, values and ideologies.

Suggested Citation

  • Roan Alexander Snyman, 2022. "Games of Truth in the Age of Transparency: International Organisations and the Construction of Corruption," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 181(1), pages 83-96, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:jbuset:v:181:y:2022:i:1:d:10.1007_s10551-021-04922-0
    DOI: 10.1007/s10551-021-04922-0
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10551-021-04922-0
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10551-021-04922-0?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Mr. Sanjeev Gupta, 1998. "Does Corruption Affect Income Inequality and Poverty?," IMF Working Papers 1998/076, International Monetary Fund.
    2. Steven Sampson, 2010. "The anti-corruption industry: from movement to institution," Global Crime, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 11(2), pages 261-278, April.
    3. Jeff Everett & Dean Neu & Abu Rahaman, 2006. "The Global Fight against Corruption: A Foucaultian, Virtues-Ethics Framing," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 65(1), pages 1-12, April.
    4. Roger Southall, 2008. "The ANC for Sale? Money, Morality & Business in South Africa," Review of African Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 35(116), pages 281-299, June.
    5. Jia Shao & Plamen Ch. Ivanov & Boris Podobnik & H. Eugene Stanley, 2007. "Quantitative relations between corruption and economic factors," Papers 0705.0161, arXiv.org.
    6. Alberto Ades & Rafael Di Tella, 1997. "The New Economics of Corruption: a Survey and Some New Results," Political Studies, Political Studies Association, vol. 45(3), pages 496-515, August.
    7. Paolo Mauro, 1995. "Corruption and Growth," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 110(3), pages 681-712.
    8. Jia Shao & Plamen Ch. Ivanov & Boris Podobnik & H. Eugene Stanley, 2007. "Quantitative relations between corruption and economic factors," The European Physical Journal B: Condensed Matter and Complex Systems, Springer;EDP Sciences, vol. 56(2), pages 157-166, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jason A. Hubbart, 2023. "Harmonizing Science and Society: A Change Management Approach to Align Scientific Endeavors with Societal Needs," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(21), pages 1-13, October.
    2. Debmalya Mukherjee & Saumyaranjan Sahoo & Satish Kumar, 2023. "Two Decades of International Business and International Management Scholarship on Africa: A Review and Future Directions," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 63(6), pages 863-909, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ahmed, Walid M.A., 2020. "Corruption and equity market performance: International comparative evidence," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 60(C).
    2. Blaise Gnimassoun, Joseph Keneck Massil, 2019. "Determinants of corruption: can we put all countries in the same basket?," European Journal of Comparative Economics, Cattaneo University (LIUC), vol. 16(2), pages 239-276, December.
    3. repec:pdn:wpaper:79 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Paulus, Michal & Kristoufek, Ladislav, 2015. "Worldwide clustering of the corruption perception," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 428(C), pages 351-358.
    5. Osipian, Ararat, 2008. "The World is Flat: Modeling Educators’ Misconduct with Cellular Automata," MPRA Paper 7592, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. LABED Lazhar & BOUCENNA Mohammed Ridha & BENZOUAI Mohamed Cherif, 2022. "Analyzing The Impact Of Corruption On Income Levels Disparity Between Countries," Studies in Business and Economics, Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu, Faculty of Economic Sciences, vol. 17(2), pages 160-175, August.
    7. Dean A. Shepherd & Vinit Parida & Joakim Wincent, 2021. "Bribery from a micro, demand-side perspective," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 57(4), pages 1661-1680, December.
    8. Yan Li & Fiona Yao & David Ahlstrom, 2015. "The social dilemma of bribery in emerging economies: A dynamic model of emotion, social value, and institutional uncertainty," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 32(2), pages 311-334, June.
    9. Završnik, Jernej & Perc, Matjaž, 2024. "Bird’s-eye view of Slovenian pediatrics reveals complexity but also consistency," Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, Elsevier, vol. 181(C).
    10. Ghulam Shabbir & Mumtaz Anwar & Shahid Adil, 2016. "Corruption, Political Stability and Economic Growth," The Pakistan Development Review, Pakistan Institute of Development Economics, vol. 55(4), pages 689-702.
    11. Joan Rosselló Villalonga, 2018. "Fiscal centralization: a remedy for corruption?," SERIEs: Journal of the Spanish Economic Association, Springer;Spanish Economic Association, vol. 9(4), pages 457-474, November.
    12. Hutzler, S. & Sommer, C. & Richmond, P., 2016. "On the relationship between income, fertility rates and the state of democracy in society," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 452(C), pages 9-18.
    13. Caselli, Francesco & Morelli, Massimo, 2004. "Bad politicians," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(3-4), pages 759-782, March.
    14. Arjona Trujillo, Ana María, 2002. "La corrupción política: una revisión de la literatura," DE - Documentos de Trabajo. Economía. DE de021404, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. Departamento de Economía.
    15. Gabriel Caldas Montes & Paulo Henrique Luna, 2021. "Fiscal transparency, legal system and perception of the control on corruption: empirical evidence from panel data," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 60(4), pages 2005-2037, April.
    16. Keith Blackburn & Niloy Bose & M. Emranul Haque, 2011. "Public Expenditures, Bureaucratic Corruption And Economic Development," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 79(3), pages 405-428, June.
    17. Méon, Pierre-Guillaume & Weill, Laurent, 2010. "Is Corruption an Efficient Grease?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 38(3), pages 244-259, March.
    18. Jean Cartier-Bresson, 2013. "Le pouvoir du positivisme et ses limites : microéconométrie et macroéconométrie actuelles du développement," Working Papers hal-00847005, HAL.
    19. Chandan Sharma & Soumik Biswas, 2020. "Determinants of Bribe in Informal Sector: Some Empirical Evidence from India," Global Business Review, International Management Institute, vol. 21(2), pages 436-457, April.
    20. Hu, Lunchao & Tian, Kailan & Wang, Xin & Zhang, Jiang, 2012. "The “S” curve relationship between export diversity and economic size of countries," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 391(3), pages 731-739.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:kap:jbuset:v:181:y:2022:i:1:d:10.1007_s10551-021-04922-0. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.