CORRUPTION Syndromes of Corruption

Participation, institutions, and syndromes of corruption 59
Table 3.4: Countries included in case-study chapters
Group/syndrome
Cases
1 Influence Markets (ch. 4) USA, Japan, Germany
2 Elite Cartels (ch. 5) Italy, Korea, Botswana
3 Oligarchs and Clans (ch. 6) Russia, Mexico, Philippines
4 Official Moguls (ch. 7) China, Kenya, Indonesia
testing the notion that patterns of corruption vary in ways symptomatic of
deeper processes and problems – a notion that applies to advanced
societies just as much as to their poorer and less democratic neighbors.
If case-study evidence supports those arguments we can then understand
the roots and significance of corruption – and propose reforms – in terms
appropriate to diverse societies.
In the chapters that follow I seek to identify, explore, and account for
the major corruption issues of twelve countries. These issues will not be
identical within any group; indeed, some are included because they
challenge the distinctions among syndromes in useful ways. The goal is
to know whether a given corruption syndrome exists, how it works, how it
reflects the interaction of participation and institutions, and how it affects
democratic and economic development. The four groups of countries
represent those corruption syndromes rather than ‘‘system types.’’ They
illustrate what is at stake in a country’s corruption, how people and
groups pursue, use, and exchange wealth and power, and how those
processes are abetted or constrained by institutions and contending interests.
Relative amounts of corruption, to the extent that they are even
knowable, will be a secondary concern; longer-term effects are a more
important theme, as are the sometimes perverse effects of reforms.
To select any cases for detailed study is of necessity to limit the analysis:
the groups of countries, and most of the societies within them, embody
considerable diversity in their own right. Those selected from each cluster
were chosen for several reasons including their inherent importance, the
goal of covering as many regions as possible, and the extent of case-study
information available for each: chapters 4–7 put the idea of contrasting
corruption syndromes to a more detailed test. If the existence and nature
of those syndromes can be established with reasonable confidence, then
the discussion of reform in chapter 8 can draw upon both the breadth of
evidence underlying cross-sectional research, and the depth of detail and
sensitivity to context found in good descriptive case studies, to develop
ideas about the best ways of dealing with contrasting corruption problems
in diverse social settings.