Addressing Corruption in Post-Soeharto Indonesia: The Role of the Corruption Eradication Commission

ABSTRACT

Anti-corruption became one of the top priorities in post-Soeharto Indonesia, with democratisation, market liberalisation and institutional anti-corruption frameworks pursued as means to enhance transparency and accountability in public governance. A core component of these efforts was the establishment of a powerful anti-corruption agency, the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK). This article assesses the effectiveness of the KPK, using evidence from two contrasting cases to identify factors that facilitated or impeded its ability to successfully investigate, prosecute and thus contain high-level corruption. The analysis highlights the threats to the KPK posed by resilient networks that were able to reconsolidate and resist anti-corruption efforts in post-Soeharto Indonesia. However, it also identifies countervailing social forces that emerged in the context of democratisation – in particular, an active civil society and a largely free press. While these supportive pressures from civil society could not fully counter the attacks on the KPK, they were able to prevent its marginalisation in the two major cases examined. Overall the KPK’s success in addressing high-level corruption is shown to be dependent on the interaction of political dynamics, interests and power relations, with no guarantee that anti-corruption forces will prevail in future cases.     

文化、政治与腐败--关于亨廷顿论新加坡有效治理腐败原因的一点质疑

本文对亨廷顿关于新加坡有效治理腐败的原因提出了质疑.亨廷顿认为,李光耀及其政府的政治作为成功地改变了新加坡的文化,在文化已经西化的基础上,新加坡治理腐败取得了成功.但是,笔者以为,新加坡的文化并没有西方化或发生了根本性的变化,其变化主要是表层和生活方式上的,而不是深层的价值观和思维方式上的.从这种变化的原因来看,也并非主要是李光耀及其政府的政治作为所致,而是各种外在的挑战和内在的主客观条件所致.笔者还对关于文化与政治之间关系的不同流派的主流观点进行了评述.     

Political Corruption in Central America: Assessment and Explanation

Analysts agree that political corruption is an obstacle to democratic consolidation but disagree about how to measure the extent of corruption in individual nations. This analysis of the Central American countries demonstrates that the most important competing quantitative measures of political corruption produce strikingly different rankings. These contradictory results are caused less by poor measurement techniques than by the existence of two different dimensions of corruption that do not always coincide. Statistical indicators based on expert perceptions of corruption and alternative indicators based on ordinary citizens' firsthand experiences with bribery measure, respectively, grand corruption by senior officials and petty corruption by lower‐level functionaries. This study attempts to explain why several Central American nations suffer primarily from one or the other rather than both. It advances recommendations for future research and future anticorruption policies that may be applied to Latin America as a whole.     

西方学者对腐败的理论研究

本文在阅读大量西方,特别是美国学者关于腐败理论研究著述的基础上,对腐败理论在西方的演变,西方学者对腐败的定义、腐败产生的根源及后果等问题的不同看法,进行了分析和整理。文章认为,美国对于政治腐败的系统研究始于20世纪70年代,那时美国学术界产生了政治腐败研究的修正主义方法。经过近25年的争论,约瑟夫·奈用现代化过程来解释腐败的观点,得到了不少学者的认同。文章在最后提出了现代化是否都要经历一个政治腐败的过程、用于解释第三世界国家腐败的理论是否适用于我国等令人深思的问题。     

俄罗斯的影子经济与腐败

影子经济在苏联时期形成规模 ,并发挥一定的经济和社会功能。在俄罗斯向市场经济转轨时期 ,影子经济进一步蔓延 ,超出经济的框架 ,其机制和规范渗透到社会所有领域。腐败现象贯穿于影子经济形成和扩散的全过程。如何解决这一问题关系着俄罗斯未来的发展方向。     

美国的政治腐败和反腐败

美国在历史上也曾经历过一个严重的腐败时期 ,这一时期是通过文官改革运动和进步主义的城市改革运动等社会改革运动来结束的。这些运动推动了行政部门结构性的变化 ,使政府改变了公共事务的管理方式。建立旨在进行自我约束的“政府道德标准”自第二次世界大战结束后被看作反腐败的一个主要措施。与此同时 ,美国政府还逐步设立了监督执行道德标准的机构 ,其主要关注在于事先预防 ,而不是事后惩罚。而国会制定的《政府道德法》成为对政府道德的法律制约。该法在 1 989年被扩大到适用于立法部门和司法部门。国会道德规则的改革围绕着禁止国会议员接受酬金进行。在美国 ,由于私人经济部门中的行政人员和政府官员之间的职位转换是惯常现象 ,防止“利益冲突”就成为防止腐败的一个关键。防止腐败并不仅仅依赖于政府官员的个人道德 ,更重要的是依赖法律和规章。     

腐败问题与印尼执政党的更迭

印尼执政党的更迭与腐败有着密切的关系.本文通过对比研究苏哈托和梅加瓦蒂执政期间腐败与反腐的基本特征及其对政党执政的影响,总结了印尼执政党在反腐方面的经验教训.     

Drugs,Violence, and Corruption: Perspectives from Mexico and Central America

Robert J. Bunker, ed., Criminal Insurgencies in Mexico and the Americas: The Gangs and Cartels Wage War. New York: Routledge, 2013. Tables, figures, index, 210 pp.; hardcover $160, paperback $56.95. Robert J. Bunker and John P. Sullivan, Studies in Gangs and Cartels. New York: Routledge, 2014. Tables, figures, index, 232 pp.; hardcover $168, paperback $54.95. Michael Deibert, In the Shadow of Saint Death: The Gulf Cartel and the Price of America's Drug War in Mexico. Guilford: Lyons Press, 2014. Map, bibliography, index, 336 pp.; hardcover $24.95, paperback $16.95. Alfredo Nateras Domínguez, Vivo por mi madre y muero por mi barrio. Significados de la violencia y la muerte en el Barrio 18 y la Mara Salvatrucha. Mexico City: Instituto Mexicano de la Juventud (IMJUVE)/Secretaría de Desarrollo Social (SEDESOL), 2014. Figures, bibliography, 493 pp.; paperback. Sala Negra de El Faro, eds., Crónicas negras desde una región que no cuenta. Mexico City: Aguilar, 2014. 350 pp.; paperback $17. Héctor Silva Ávalos, Infiltrados: crónica de la corrupción en la PNC (1992–2013). San Salvador: UCA Ediciones, 2014. 312 pp.; paperback $10.     

越南腐败对企业发展影响的研究——基于世界银行企业问卷调查的实证分析

越南的腐败与其经济高速增长相伴而生,腐败在其经济高速增长中是扮演了促进经济增长的"润滑剂"作用,还是阻碍经济增长的"沙子"角色,这有待实证的检验。本文基于世界银行2005年和2009年对越南企业的问卷调查,通过OLS和IV方法,研究发现越南腐败阻碍了其企业生产率的提高。相对未卷入腐败活动的企业而言,卷入腐败活动的企业生产率要低11.7%左右。越南腐败主要是通过增加企业的生产成本,以及扭曲企业家稀缺才能的时间和精力配置来降低企业生产率的。作为投资东盟的重要目的地,我国企业在投资越南之前应充分考虑和认识到腐败对企业生产经营活动以及生产率的影响,未雨绸缪做好相应的准备。     

Perceptions of Political Corruption in Latin American Democracies

Political corruption poses a serious threat to the stability of developing democracies by eroding the links between citizens and governments. Using data on national levels of corruption (Transparency International 1997 CPI index) and individual opinion (1995-97 World Values Survey), this study finds that Latin Americans are quite aware of the seriousness of corruption in their countries. The ensuing question is whether citizens can connect their views about corruption to appraisals of their authorities and institutions and of democracy more generally. Collectively, the findings suggest that they can, and that the necessary ingredients for accountability are present in Latin America. The possible dark side of mass opinion on corruption is that pervasive misconduct may poison public sentiment toward democratic politics. On this score, the analysis found that this attitude affected only support for specific administrations and institutions.     

台湾政党政治的腐败与政治转型

近二十年来,金钱政治以一种看似矛盾和不自觉的方式,破坏着台湾执政党和政府及官员的政治形象、权力结构和统治基础,以一种潜在的力量推动着它们的政党政治和政治体制由一元的模式向多元的模式变化,从而加快了多元政治的发展;同时,在巩固民主的过程中,它以一种瓦解体制的形式阻碍着民主制度的形成和稳定.进一步来说,这种腐败在政党政治和政治发展的不同阶段可以产生不同的作用,它或是在巩固政治转型阶段推动政治转型和民主化,或是在巩固民主的阶段推动或阻碍民主的发展,但其总的表现形式都是瓦解体制.     

Corruption protection: fractionalization and the corruption of anti-corruption efforts in Iraq after 2003

This paper argues that corruption protection arises because a central feature of Iraq’s institutional environment is its factionalised political system between groups (i.e. sectarian affiliation), and these groups both protect their members from corruption charges launched by other groups, and collude to protect each other from prosecution of corruption. The paper defines corruption protection as ‘action carried out to prevent perpetrators of corruption from being brought to justice’, which is a systematic attempt among corrupt agents seeking to evade accountability for primary corruption activity. The paper has identified two contrasting paths taken by these groups in power in the dynamics of corruption protection: (a) The competitive mode is illustrated by spurious allegations of corruption made by some groups against other groups. Tension between factions results in fake charges being brought against rivals which sometimes lead to wrongful imprisonment of the innocent; (b) collusive between intra-factional groups, corruptly conspiring to hide each other’s corrupt acts thereby constructing a shield which protects the entire elite in Iraq, an issue which I label ‘solidarity in corruption’. The paper will conclude that despite the apparent strength of anti-corruption framework, the reality tells us a very different story; the multiple institutions established to fight corruption and the system of accountability can also constitute a means for corruption protection.     

Cold war era relations between West Germany and Turkish political Islam: from an anti-communist alliance to a domestic security issue

ABSTRACT

West Germany played a significant role in the growth of Political Islam in Turkey during the Cold War. By recruiting from among Turkish workers in West Germany, Islamist organizations and the religious communities known as cemaats acquired significant economic revenues, which they used to fund their activities in Turkey. Moreover, West Germany served as a liaison between Turkish Islamists and Syrian and Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood members, who have influenced Political Islam in Turkey since the 1960s. Prominent Muslim Brotherhood representatives in West Germany took on important roles in the recruitment of Turks and also played some part in shaping the ideological development of Turkish Islamists. Due to the pervasiveness of anti-communism in West Germany and Turkey during the Cold War, the established orders in both countries viewed Political Islam as an antidote to the ascendancy of the Left. However, in the 1980s, Bonn and Ankara grew concerned about Islamist organizations becoming further radicalized and impossible to control; the two governments often cooperated in order to bring Political Islam under their own authority.