Sanjeev Khagram

A Comparative Study of Inequality and Corruption

We propose that income inequality increases corruption. The rich are likely to both have greater motivation and opportunities to engage in bribery and fraud as one means to preserve and advance their status, privileges, and interests while the poor are more vulnerable to extortion at higher levels of inequality. While countries with authoritarian regimes are likely to have greater levels of corruption on average, the effect of greater inequality on corruption will be higher in democracies, in which the wealthy cannot employ repression and poorer groups are likely to more effectively demand redistribution. Both OLS estimates (for samples of 95 to 122 countries) and IV 2SLS estimates (for samples of 83 to 103 countries) support our arguments, with 2SLS estimates showing stronger statistically significant effects of inequality on corruption, utilizing Transparency Internationals Corruption Perceptions Index, the World Banks Control of Corruption Index (average for 1996-2002) and Dollar and Kraays income inequality data (average Gini for 1950-1999). Surprisingly, the explanatory power of inequality is substantially no less important than conventionally accepted causes of corruption such as economic development. Contrary to conventional wisdom, smaller and not larger government is associated with higher levels of corruption, because higher inequality through corruption is associated with lower tax rates as well as lower government transfers and subsidies.

From the Environment and Human Security to Sustainable Security and Development

This paper argues for a broader emphasis on sustainable security and sustainable development, and for examining both opportunities as well as threats to security. The authors note that many of the significant risks arising from human and natural interactions do not emerge at global or local levels, but at intermediate scales. They look at what different conceptual frameworks have to contribute to our understanding and review lessons from experience, illustrating where possible with work on water. The authors conclude by offering implications for an agenda of action, including interconnected frameworks, coalitions for change, interlocking institutional arrangements and disaggregated goals and indicators.

South Africa's Charter Approach to Post-Apartheid Economic Transformation: Collaborative Governance or Hardball Bargaining?*

This article considers the South African black economic empowerment (BEE) programme, with an emphasis on the sector charters in mining and finance, to investigate the extent to which these developments may be characterised in terms of collaborative governance. It argues that the genesis and content of the charters do represent important elements of collaborative governance, including a reliance on interest-based negotiation and an expectation that business contributes to the public benefit as good corporate citizens. But underlying these elements have been more powerful drivers related to power-based bargaining, whereby international investors have emerged as key, albeit ill-defined, stakeholders in South Africas post-apartheid transition. The role of corporate citizenship has been limited, despite efforts by business to portray the outcomes and agreements in terms of business voluntarism and enlightened self-interest. The article thus re-emphasises the role of the state in defining and enforcing a social role for big business. It raises concerns that the BEE programme charters prejudice more fundamental socio-economic transformation in the interests of the established corporations, and it calls for more research on how BEE is being implemented.

Thinking about knowing: conceptual foundations for interdisciplinary environmental research

Working across knowledge-based research programmes, rather than institutional structures, should be central to interdisciplinary research. In this paper, a novel framework is proposed to facilitate interdisciplinary research, with the goals of promoting communication, understanding and collaborative work. Three core elements need to be addressed to improve interdisciplinary research: the types (forms and functions) of theories, the underlying philosophies of knowledge and the combination of research styles; these three elements combine to form the research programme. Case studies from sustainability science and environmental security illustrate the application of this research programme-based framework. This framework may be helpful in overcoming often oversimplified distinctions, such as qualitative/quantitative, deductive/inductive, normative/descriptive, subjective/objective and theory/practice. Applying this conceptual framework to interdisciplinary research should foster theoretical advances, more effective communication and better problem-solving in increasingly interdisciplinary environmental fields.

Multi-Stakeholder Global Networks: Emerging Systems for the Global Common Good

This significant study discusses the emergence of partnerships for sustainable development as an innovative, and potentially influential, new type of governance. With contributions from leading experts in the field, the ‘partnership paradigm’ is discussed and the contributors explore the process, extent and circumstances under which partnerships can improve the legitimacy and effectiveness of governance for sustainable development.

Evidence for development effectiveness

Understanding about what constitutes development effectiveness requires elaboration in order for evidence to add greater value. Development in the twenty-first century is often complicated, if not complex, and correspondingly is most likely to be achieved through diagnostic, contextual approaches to experimentation and innovation. Impact planning, assessment, reporting, and learning systems (IPARLS) can successfully contribute to development effectiveness because they integrate key lessons learned about both the more successful generation and utilisation of evidence, and are aligned with the nature of twenty-first century development. Impact evaluations should be embedded in IPARLS in order to be more legitimate and better used. The systematic application of comparison and triangulation is the platinum standard of rigour for impact evaluations. Impact evaluations can be further improved if they are theory-based, investigate descriptive and causal inference, analyse casual mechanisms, and focus on contextual elaboration. Case and comparative case study designs for impact evaluation remain essential and these approaches can be made more rigorous given recent methodological advances. Impact evaluations and IPARLS will and should be judged by their contribution to greater understanding of development effectiveness and ultimately improved development.

When the Land Tells a Story: Using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) for Landscape Monitoring and Humanitarian Relief: Innovations Case Discussion: Pingree Easement

their entire jurisdiction using three key technologies: geographic information systems (GIS), remote sensing (RS), and global positioning systems (GPS). The novelty in the case lies neither in the technology nor the application, but rather in the management setting where the innovation took place. As Jim Levitt wrote, the size of the easement, the “largest conservation easement project ever realized in the course of American history,” carried with it the significant challenge of tracking landscape changes due to “human population pressures and attendant disruptive environmental impacts” while wisely investing monetary resources in these technologies and human resources. As is true with national parks, designating lands for protection and developing a set of permissible uses is only the start; managers must then find the resources to monitor and enforce those uses. With a finite, albeit robust, budget and personnel who could not always be present, the New England Forestry Foundation (NEFF) distributed a call for proposals to experts in the field of landscape monitoring. Each group that replied to NEFF employed some aspect of GIS/RS in its plan to monitor and track changes to the landscape of the Pingree forest. Given the Randall B. Kemp and Sanjeev Khagram