Steven Sampson

The anti-corruption industry: from movement to institution

This article describes the concept of ‘industry’, often used pejoratively in critiques of international development, and applies it to the field of anti-corruption. The characteristics of the anti-corruption industry, including anti-corruptionist discourse, resemble that which has taken place in development aid, human rights, civil society and gender equality. The anti-corruption industry thus includes key global actors, secondary actors who look for ‘signals’ and an apparatus of understandings, knowledge, statistics and measures, all of which tend to prioritise anti-corruption institutions over anti-corruption activism. It is argued that the questionable impact of anti-corruption programmes enables the anti-corruption industry to coexist along with the corruption it ostensibly is combating. Instead of viewing anti-corruption as hegemonic, we need to critically examine the consequences of the global institutionalisation of anti-corruptionist discourse and anti-corruption practice.

From Reconciliation to Coexistence

In “Reconciliation after Ethnic Cleansing” (Public Culture 14 [spring 2002]: 281–304), John Borneman stresses that reconciliation requires acknowledging personal loss. Through witnessing, listening, and truth-telling, we can restore trust and regain a larger, more inclusive moral community. Truth-telling involves more than just finding out who did what to whom. It is about assessing these various truths in an intersubjective, relational way, or what Borneman calls “listening.” When carried out in public forums with skilled listeners, truth-telling creates a community that can transcend the ethnicization and revenge cycle that is all too common in ethnic conflicts. Restoration of social bonds of trust also requires retributive justice executed by institutions enforcing a higher morality, so that neither I nor my children have to take revenge. Retributive justice helps facilitate the mourning process by wiping the slate clean. Legitimate judicial institutions and rule of law can help people begin the memory work needed to deal with the trauma of ethnic cleansing. Yet even with an emphasis on listening and reconciliation, we are left with several problems. First, is reconciliation really a question of dialogue? Why should nonviolent relations between ethnic groups be understood as “reconciliation”? Like “truth-telling,” “accountability,” “transparency,” and of course, “human rights,” the concept of reconciliation is peculiarly Western. Reconciliation postulates a situation prior to conflict that is marked by peace, friendship, and understanding—yet these circumstances most likely existed only as someone’s nostalgia.

Diagnostics: Indicators and transparency in the anti-corruption industry

We are in a wave of transparency. Transparency used to be a slogan of civil society organizations, something they pressed for when confronting unresponsive governments or secretive corporations. Transparency was about compelling organizations of the state and market to reveal their secrets. It was an exercise of discovery, knowledge gathering and dissemination. Transparency was the wooden club wielded by civil society.

From forms to norms: global projects and local practices in the Balkan NGO scene

Even the most localized rule-of-Iaw conflicts are integrally tied to global forces. At the local level, these global discourses and resources are utilized in the local power struggles as they play themselves out in democracy promotion projects. This paper analyses the role of local NGOs in helping to institute the rule of law in the new democracies of Eastern Europe. Global democracy promotion efforts in the world of projects may actually inhibit the emergence of democratic practices. At the global/local interface, we must analyze why certain definitions or discourses triumph over the long term. It remains to be seen whether we are exporting genuine democratic norms or simply the forms of activity typical of project society.

The audit juggernaut : Comment on Audit Culture articles

Anthropologists studying audit culture focus on the success of rankings, ratings and indicators in constituting or reproducing discourses, a kind of audit juggernaut of power. But in fact, alot of these rankings have no impact at all. The short commentary, part of a group of papers on audit culture, rankings and indicators, compares the Transparency International Corruption Perception Index with the lesser known World Bank Governance Matters index. Anthropologists need to study why some audit discourses have no impact at all.