The rule of

law and [Link]. Dea

Public Bashkurti

corruption
• It is good for men to be in a situation where
although their passions inspire them to do evil
their interests prevent them from doing so.

—Charles Montesquieu, 1748

What is the Rule of Law?

• To be meaningful in a governance context, the “rule of law”

cannot be defined either so narrowly as to make it the
equivalent of a procedural manual nor so broadly as to
encompass the other three components of good governance –
that are related to but separable from the rule of law.
At the other extreme is the broad definition by
the World Justice Project (WJP), which considers
the rule of law as comprising four elements:

• accountability, of the government and private individuals;

• “just laws” – laws that are clear, publicized, stable, and just; are
applied evenly; and protect basic rights, including the security of
persons and property and core human rights;
• open government – fair and efficient processes by which the laws
are enacted, administered, and enforced; and
• accessible and impartial dispute resolution – delivery of justice
that is delivered in a timely way by competent, ethical, and
independent representatives.
Picking and choosing from the various
definitions, the key components of the rule of
law in the context of governance are:

(i) formulation of laws and regulation with due consideration of

the main groups and interests affected;
(ii) clarity and publicity of the laws and rules;
(iii) an independent judiciary that interpreted those laws and
rules; and
(iv) uniform and effective enforcement.
 Administrative Law

• With respect to public administration in particular, its legitimacy

and functioning are grounded in administrative law.
• Administrative law is the body of law and rules that governs the
creation, powers, operation, and accountability of government
agencies, and their relationship to other agencies of government
and to the public at large.
• Administrative law is essential to underpin, frame, support, and
limit the functioning of the organs of the executive branch of the
state.
What Is Corruption?

Problems of corruption in government are not new. Indeed,

official corruption is the second oldest profession.
Types of Corruption

• Corruption, takes different forms, not all of which are equally

important or costly.

• “Corruption” is shorthand for a wide variety of illegal and illicit

behaviors, ranging from outright theft or pilfering of state
assets, to collusion in procurement, exchange of favors for
recruitment and promotions, bribes to obtain basic services,
and so on.
Types of Corruption

• Some types of corruption are internal – interfering with the

ability of a government agency to manage its financial and
human resources – and other forms of corruption are external –
involving efforts to manipulate or extort money from clients or
suppliers, or to benefit from inside information.
Economic Corruption

• Bribes given to induce public officials to deviate from their duties

must be distinguished from bribes given to get them to do what
they are supposed to do. The corrupting effect is the same, but in
the former case the allocation of resources and services is
distorted as well.
• “Syndicated” corruption, in which elaborate systems are devised
for receiving and disseminating bribes, is different from
nonsyndicated corruption, in which individual officials seek or
compete for bribes in an ad hoc and uncoordinated fashion.
Economic Corruption

• A third important distinction has been made by Transparency

International between “grand corruption” and “petty
corruption”. Grand corruption typically involves senior officials,
major decisions or contracts, and large sums of money.

• Petty corruption involves low-level officials, the provision of

routine services and goods, and small sums of money
Economic Corruption

• A related distinction is between systemic corruption, which

permeates an entire government or ministry, and individual
corruption, which is more isolated and sporadic.

• Systemic corruption is a major governance and public

management problem; isolated corruption is a run-of-the-mill
law enforcement problem.
Political corruption

• Political corruption differs in intent and effect from economic

corruption.
• Political corruption includes, among others, such practices as
the financing of political parties in exchange for contracts or
official posts, the cooptation of legislators by giving them a
major role over the award of contracts in their constituencies,
or undue influence of lobbyists on the drafting of law and
public policies.
Political corruption

• Private financing of political parties is common in Europe,

whereas the latter type of political corruption is especially
prevalent in the United States.
Political corruption

• Illicit political financing or pork-barrel politics are a blight on

the integrity, efficiency, and effectiveness of public
management, but the problem is essentially political and is not
amenable to technical or administrative remedies.
• (This is why illicit political financing is not included in the
international anti-corruption agreements, such as the OECD
Anti-Bribery Treaty and the UN Convention Against Corruption.)
However, the boundary between political corruption and
outright bribery is fuzzy.
Case study

• Check pg. 511

The Cancer of Corruption

• Corruption has not always been seen as having a negative

impact on the economy or society.
• On the contrary, in earlier times it was argued that corruption
could advance efficiency by helping to restore government-
controlled prices to their market levels.
The Cancer of Corruption

• Others maintained that corruption plays a useful redistributive

role from wealthy individuals and corporations to clever people
of more modest means, or that it could serve as a tool of
national integration by allowing the ruling elites to bribe
fractious political, ethnic, or religious groups.
The Costs of Corruption

• The direct costs of corruption are both large and diverse, as

the following examples show:

• in the Italian city of Milano, anti-corruption initiatives reduced

the cost of infrastructure outlays by more than one third. In
Italy as a whole, official corruption had added at least 15
percent, or $200 billion, to government debt;
The Costs of Corruption

• in New York City, ridding the garbage industry of Mafia

domination allowed businesses to cut $330 million from their
annual waste disposal bill of $1.5 billion;
The Costs of Corruption

• Even more damaging can be the indirect costs of corruption,

which cannot be measured with precision.
• Corruption can skew investment decisions to favor expensive
and unnecessary projects over smaller and more productive
ones and over necessary maintenance and rehabilitation
expenditure – lowering investment productivity and reducing
asset life.
Factors Affecting Corruption

• The size of the government

• Many people believe that “big government” fuels greater

public corruption. This is not the case. Internationally, there is
no correlation between the size of government and extent of
corruption.
Factors Affecting Corruption

• Autonomy without Accountability

• Measures to give more autonomy to public managers (or to

devolve authority to lower government levels) are often
resisted from fear of losing necessary central control.
• Failing to balance efficiency and control is especially damaging
in the fight against corruption.
Factors Affecting Corruption

• Inequality and Growth

• Corruption leads to increasing income inequality in every type

of country, but does not appear to affect significantly economic
growth in high-income democracies
Factors Affecting Corruption

• Religion and Decentralization

• The evidence is that the incidence of official crooks among

believers in one religion is about the same as among believers
in another religion – and that atheists or agnostics are no more
crooked than religious people. In fact, in many of the most
corrupt countries the population is most religious
Factors Affecting Corruption

• Religion and Decentralization

• Nor does decentralization necessarily help reduce bribery. It

may, or it may not, depending on country circumstances, and
especially the level of integrity in local government relative to
that in central government. Corruption can be just as bad at
local level as in central government.
Case Study

• Check page. 518

So, what does help to reduce
public corruption?

• In general, improving transparency and strengthening citizen

participation do help.

• In turn, the development of information and communications

technology has led to a dramatic rise in opportunities for
citizen participation.
So, what does help to reduce
public corruption?

• Controlling for the impacts of the other economic and political

factors, there is evidence that e-participation has a significant
positive influence on the perception of public integrity at the
national level and that countries with higher e-participation
have lower levels of corruption.
Five administrative policies can also be
effective in fostering integrity in government:

• There is evidence that greater female participation in public

administration lowers the level of corruption (Jin, 2016). This suggests
that public integrity can be improved by increasing the proportion of
women in government employment.
• Badly inadequate civil servants’ compensation makes corruption
inevitable. Raising salaries to a living wage is thus a necessary
condition to reduce bribery – but it isn’t sufficient. In the absence of
stronger accountability mechanisms, increasing salaries may not
reduce corruption – as shown by the evidence of China (Gong and Wu,
2012).
Five administrative policies can also be
effective in fostering integrity in government:

• Policies encouraging whistleblowers are important. Normal restrictions on

the freedom of speech of government employees should not apply in
cases of public corruption.

• Social accountability mechanisms, such as citizen ratings of agency

performance can make a major contribution to public integrity, but
electoral accountability is key (Schatz, 2013). In a weak governance
environment dominated by unaccountable elites, these mechanisms are
invariably disabled, used only for PR purposes and to permit harmless
“venting” by citizens.
Five administrative policies can also be
effective in fostering integrity in government:

• Improving tax administration and the management of

government expenditure is the most effective anti-corruption
remedy. It is especially important in public investment, which
can drive economic growth, support the delivery of public
services, and help reduce poverty. It can do none of these
things if it is inefficient, and corruption is a major cause of
investment inefficiency.
Pick one of the two following statements
and make a credible argument for it:

• “Public corruption is most likely to flourish in situations of weak

governance and loose accountability. Therefore, the overall
approach to reducing corruption is to improve the country’s
governance and accountability mechanisms.”

• “Public corruption exists because it pays. Therefore, the best

approach to reducing corruption is a frontal assault on crooked
officials and civil servants, with strong enforcement and severe
penalties for corrupt behavior.”
Questions

• Who are the main winners and losers from widespread official
corruption?

• All things considered, do you personally believe that official

corruption will diminish during your lifetime, either in your
country or internationally? Why?