Providing an authoritative global overview of theoretical and empirical research in the field, this Handbook explores the complex relationship between gender and corruption in democracies. Through an analysis of the gendered dynamics of corruption across institutions, it advances understanding of both its causes and consequences.

The link between gender and corruption has been studied since the late 1990s. Debates have been heated and scholars accused of bringing forward stereotypical beliefs about women as the “fair” sex. Policy proposals for bringing more women to office have been criticized for promoting unrealistic quick-fix solutions to deeply rooted problems. This edited volume advances the knowledge surrounding the link between gender and corruption by including studies where the historical roots of corruption are linked to gender and by contextualizing the exploration of relationships, for example by distinguishing between democracies versus authoritarian states and between the electoral arena versus the administrative branch of government—the bureaucracy. Taken together, the chapters display nuances and fine-grained understandings. The book highlights that gender equality processes, rather than the exclusionary categories of “women” and “men”, should be at the forefront of analysis, and that developments strengthening the position of women vis-à-vis men affect the quality of government.

Building upon the body of existing literature that has established the importance of norms in understanding why genders interact with social phenomena differently, and how gender plays a role in most aspects of corruption, this cutting-edge book expands the fields to explore the nexus between norms, gender and corruption.

The Routledge Handbook of Public Procurement Corruption showcases the most innovative and exciting research being conducted in this important area of study, providing a comprehensive go-to reference for all who are interested in the topic. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the global race for health and ancillary goods amid global supply chain disruptions demonstrated that, when tested, all countries are incredibly vulnerable to fraud and corruption in public procurement, irrespective of their level of development. Yet despite the widespread nature of the problem, there remains a lack of in-depth, analytical, and cross-country investigations into public procurement corruption. This book addresses this gap by providing a comprehensive, multidisciplinary, geographically balanced treatise on corruption in public procurement. It combines country-specific studies to allow readers to easily compare differing perspectives and approaches and overarching thematic chapters to reflect on new and cutting-edge issues in procurement and their implications for procurement corruption. Key sectors such as healthcare and infrastructure are considered, as well as the role of new technologies, in both combatting and enabling procurement corruption. This Handbook provides academics, practitioners, and graduate researchers of public administration, law, and anti-corruption with all of the tools they need to understand the nuances of public procurement corruption around the world.

Corruption in Asia ranges from the venal rent-seeking of local officials to the million-dollar bribes received by corrupt politicians; from excessive position-related consumption to future job offers in the private sector for compliant public servants; from money-laundering to ‘white elephant’ projects that do little more than line the pockets of developers and their political partners. The Routledge Handbook of Corruption in Asia addresses the theories, issues and trends in corruption and anticorruption reform that have emerged from this diverse experience. The book is divided into four major parts: corruption and the state; corruption and economic development; corruption and society; and controlling corruption: strategies, successes and failures. Chapters compare and contrast corruption in different social and institutional contexts, examine both successful and unsuccessful attempts to control it, and consider what lessons can be drawn from these Asian experiences. This academically rigorous and insightful book will be of interest to a wide range of students and scholars, particularly those of Asian studies, politics and sociology.

Corruption, commonly defined as the misuse of public office for private gains, is multifaceted, multidimensional and ubiquitous. This edited collection, featuring contributions from leading scholars in the field of corruption, goes beyond the standard enforcement framework wherein individuals only compare the expected costs and benefits of a corrupt act. These chapters explore the political-cultural contexts, legal and regulatory process and, above all, moral and psychological factors in attempts to understand and explain corruption. The book explores a broad canvas where gender, technology, culture and institutional structures influence attitudes towards corruption. Design and implementation of anti-corruption strategies benefit from suitable identification of these factors contributing to the prevalence and persistence of corruption. Combining theoretical and empirical studies with evidence from experiments as well as case studies, the book provides crucial state of the art in corruption research in a highly accessible manner. This book serves as a vital reference to students and scholars in economics, politics and development studies. Additionally, policymakers and development practitioners can use the insights from this book in successful design and implementation of anti-corruption policies.

This book outlines evidence-based and data-driven strategies for combating grand corruption in Africa. Although the causes of corruption vary from country to country, this book suggests that corruption in Africa is often a direct consequence of poorly conceived legislation, policies, and institutional loopholes. The authors in this solution-oriented book converge in arguing that effective strategies to combat corruption (corruption proofing) should integrate an independent enforcement system, vigilant civil society, vibrant media, and political leadership. Utilising empirical evidence and a systems thinking approach, the contributors also uncover root causes of corruption and identify high-leverage interventions to prevent abuse of entrusted power for personal gain. The book recommends an integrated proactive strategy that includes top-down, bottom-up, and multi-stakeholder approaches in the implementation of anti-corruption legislation and policies. Bringing together multidisciplinary and transdisciplinary research, the chapters in this volume include case studies from selected countries on the continent, including Cameroon, Kenya, Malawi, Namibia, Uganda, and Zimbabwe. Providing readers with a range of effective and functional initiatives in combating corruption in Africa, this book will be of interest to students and researchers of corruption, governance, ethics, peace and security, development, and African studies, as well as policymakers, practitioners, development partners, among other stakeholders.

This book focuses on the role of norms in the description, explanation, prediction and combat of corruption. It conceives corruption as a ubiquitous problem, constructed by specific traditions, values, norms and institutions. The chapters concentrate on the relationship between corruption and social as well as legal norms, providing comparative perspectives from different academic disciplines, theoretical and methodological backgrounds, and various country-studies. Due to the nature of social norms that are embedded in personal, local, and organizational contexts, the contributions in the volume focus in particular on the individual and institutional level of analysis (micro and meso-mechanisms). The book will be of interest to students and scholars across the fields of political science, public administration, socio-legal studies and psychology.

Since the early 1990s, a series of major scandals in both the financial and most especially the political world has resulted in close attention being paid to the issue of corruption and its links to political legitimacy and stability. Indeed, in many countries – in both the developed as well as the developing world – corruption seems to have become almost an obsession. Concern about corruption has become a powerful policy narrative: the explanation of last resort for a whole range of failures and disappointments in the fields of politics, economics and culture. In the more established democracies, worries about corruption have become enmeshed in a wider debate about trust in the political class. Corruption remains as widespread today, possibly even more so, as it was when concerted international attention started being devoted to the issue following the end of the Cold War. This Handbook provides a showcase of the most innovative and exciting research being conducted in Europe and North America in the field of political corruption, as well as providing a new point of reference for all who are interested in the topic. The Handbook is structured around four core themes in the study of corruption in the contemporary world: understanding and defining the nature of corruption; identifying its causes; measuring its extent; and analysing its consequences. Each of these themes is addressed from various perspectives in the first four sections of the Handbook, whilst the fifth section explores new directions that are emerging in corruption research. The contributors are experts in their field, working across a range of different social-science perspectives.

Delving into the phenomenology of corruption and its impacts on the governance of societies, this cutting edge Encyclopedia considers what makes corruption such a resilient, complex, and global priority for study. This title contains one or more Open Access entries.