Davide Torsello

The Anthropology of Corruption

The social importance of corruption and its complex nature have led management scholars to study the phenomenon. However, they have largely ignored the research conducted by anthropologists on the matter. The aim of this article is to provide a critical review of the anthropological literature on corruption in relation to the management science research. Anthropology offers valuable insights into the understanding of the study of corruption. The field provides new perspectives particularly in relation to the definition of the concept, the morality of corruption, the processual approach, the methods of inquiry, and the holistic perspective. Management research can gain important insights from the results of ethnographic investigations that support the idea that the great diversity in the practices of corruption worldwide is imbued with the particular cultural and social implications of this phenomenon.

The “revival” of civil society in Central Eastern Europe: New environmental and political movements

The idea of civil society is one of the oldest and most contested in Western political and sociological thought. Among the social sciences, anthropology has been the discipline that has prompted the boldest critiques of the concept. This paper argues that the “revival” of civil society in Central and Eastern Europe in one particular field—that of environmental activism—has been contingent with the outcomes of EU enlargement policies. I introduce the case study of one of the most complex and contested transport development projects in Central Eastern Europe: the Budapest Ring Road. I maintain that within the EU enlargement project alternative forms of political power have been built from below and that they eventually come to compete with the state (and local governments) to influence decision-making processes. These forms, to be individuated in the emergence of environmental activism, take shape at local, state and transnational levels and aim, although often contradictorily, at restituting political agency under the condition of lowering public participation in decision-making processes.

Corruption as Social Exchange: The View from Anthropology

Scholars and policymakers today are confronted with the fact that corruption has become one of the most pervasive notions in public debates about quality and efficacy of governance. Due to its social importance and complex nature, corruption has been studied by diverse social sciences. Thus, over the last three decades, various social sciences have covered numerous topics related to corruption, such as the movement from an evolutionary concern for the historical forms of corruption in the Western world (Scott, 1972; Heidenheimer, 1989), its influence on political factions and parties (Della Porta and Vannucci, 1999; Kawata, 2006), its functional role in political systems (Leff, 1964; Huntington, 1968; Montinola and Jackman, 2002), its nexus with democracy, civil society, and development (Bardhan, 1997; Rose-Ackerman, 1999; Doig and Theobald, 2000; Johnston, 2005). Obviously, each field has its own priorities in investigating corruption. For example, economists have been interested in, among other topics, the causes of corruption and its influence on economic development (Mauro, 1995; Svenson, 1995). Political scientists have addressed political themes such as the importance of political institutions, and the regulation or freedom of the press in relation to corruption (Rose-Ackerman, 1999). For example, Anderson and Tverdova (2003) showed that citizens in countries with higher levels of corruption express more negative evaluations of the performance of the political system and exhibit lower levels of trust in civil servants.