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Justice Sector Corruption in Ethiopia 189
holds a monopoly or quasi-monopoly on its basic functions; (b) requires
a large measure of discretionary decision making; and (c) faces practical
and ideological constraints on the use of accountability mechanisms.
These same factors also make it difficult to identify corruption conclusively,
and they posed certain obstacles to this research—which, in the
end, had to rely on the observations and perceptions of “knowledgeable”
individuals and their willingness to divulge their own experience or what
they believed was going on around them. To illustrate this comment, we
can place Klitgaard’s three factors in the context of any justice sector’s
operations.
Monopoly. Although alternative forums have been proliferating for civil
disputes (hence the popularity of alternative dispute resolution [Williams
2002]), they cannot help to strengthen the legal framework because their
decisions are individualized and private. The advantage of the official
forums (be they state or traditional) is that they leave a public (if unwritten)
record whereby individuals can calculate their risks should they or
others decide to ignore the rules. In criminal cases, a monopolistic system
is more important because the state (or the local community) will have
more interest in ensuring that the rule-based and public decisions constitute
a disincentive to rule violation.
Discretion. Despite occasional efforts to reduce the discretionary powers
of sector actors by establishing bright-line rules to guide their actions,
there are practical limits to the feasibility of this approach. When
pushed to extremes, it quickly leads to gridlock and its own injustices.
Judicial reactions to sentencing rules in the United States are one example.
Both judges and the public want greater flexibility and individualization
of sentencing rather than conformity to an ironclad set of
regulations.
However, even when rules are introduced, they are difficult to enforce
because so many of the sector actors operate in relative isolation:
• The police officer confronted with a possible crime and suspect must and
will make a context-based decision as to whether to ignore the possible
offense or arrest the likely perpetrator. Corruption can enter here, of
course, but there are other reasons for “letting the offender off”: a firsttime
minor offense, more important matters to pursue, and so on.
• Prosecutors must decide how much evidence is required to go forward
with a case, whether they have a chance of collecting that evidence,