Facilitating corruption and human rights violations: the role of international financial institutions

The connection between corruption and the suppression of human rights has been recognized by scholars of human rights, state and state-corporate crime, non-governmental organizations, the United Nations as well as various governments. Scrutiny of governmental and/or regime corruption has been a primary focus, in relation to barriers and/or violations of human rights. Additionally, multinational companies’ complicity in corruptive policies and practices has raised concerns, in particular in the arms and natural resources sector. Glaringly absent, however, within the criminological literature are discussions of, and research on, the role of international financial institutions (IFIs) in relation to high levels of state corruption, save for the relatively little criminological research that has explored how cooperative endeavors between international financial institutions, transnational corporations, and states often result in demonstrably harmful activities as a result of structural adjustment policies. As such, it seems appropriate to consider how certain components and/or policies of IFIs facilitate rather than constrain corruptive practices by regimes, militias, paramilitaries, and transnational corporations. Such an exercise is not only important for its etiological contributions, but also to draw criminological attention to this phenomenon and because these organizations have stated a commitment to reducing state level corruption. I hope to extend the focus and insights of criminological analysis of crimes of globalization herein.     

A Schumpeterian growth model: wealth and directed technological change

This paper explores the effects of the accumulation of savings on the creative reaction of firms, the search for technological congruence and the direction of technological change with a Schumpeterian model of endogenous growth. The model shows how the accumulation of wealth accounts for the reduction of the relative user cost of capital and activates, with proper levels of knowledge governance, the creative reaction of firms, search for higher levels of technological congruence and the introduction of directed technological change with higher levels of capital intensity. The dynamics of accumulation of wealth and induced technological change accounts the self-sustained increase of total factor productivity.     

Political corruption and the role of public prosecutors in Italy

This paper analyzes the problem of political corruption in Italy and the role public prosecutors have played in unraveling such a phenomenon. The factors that have contributed to fostering systemic corruption as well as those that have contributed to uncovering such a system are given careful consideration. The most relevant conclusion is that whereas endogenous forces in the judiciary (prosecutors and judges) — in particular, its low level of institutional autonomy — have prevented it from containing corruption, exogenous forces — which have broken the conditions that had favoured the stability of the so-called first Republic — have led prosecutors to engage in massive investigations.This article is a revised version of the paper prepared for delivery at the 1994 Workshop on Corruption and Politics held at the Instituto Internacional de Sociologia Juridica, Onati (Spain), July 13–14, 1994. I am appreciative to Prof. Giuseppe Di Federico (University of Bologna) for his deep insights of this complex matter and for his very useful comments.     

Women in government, public corruption, and liberal democracy: a panel analysis

Ever since a 2001 World Bank report, many policymakers have come to accept a gender-based approach to corruption control, which posits that women in government reduce corruption because females are more ethical than males. An alternative explanation asserting the spuriousness of the gender-corruption link suggests that both gender equality and lower corruption result from a functioning liberal democracy. In this study, eight hypotheses are formulated and tested with longitudinal data for 204 countries. Findings demonstrate that neither the level of women in government nor a change in it has any impact on the prevalence and/or short-term trend of corruption. But both the strength of liberal institutions and an increase in this strength predict the prevalence and trend of corruption.     

Harbouring the illicit: borderlands and human trafficking in South East Asia

The unique environment of borderlands in mainland and insular South East Asia has facilitated the growth of human trafficking for sexual and labour exploitation. Organised crime groups have seized upon opportunities offered in these geographic locales to develop this illicit industry. This article examines the dynamics of human trafficking in three diverse border areas in the region: the Cambodian-Thai border; Indonesia-Singapore-Malaysia border; and the Thai-Burmese border. An examination of the unique social and power dynamics of the borderlands and a comparative history of these areas will illustrate how organised crime groups have flourished and engaged in human trafficking to support local border sex industries. This trade preys upon the vulnerable and impoverished living on the fringes of border communities. Weak State institutions, entrenched patronage networks, and distance from central control have made these borderlands ideal for criminals to establish themselves and their illicit activities. These same conditions have made it easy for regional tourists to engage in illicit sex in neighbouring countries with little chance of recrimination.     

The multi-shade paradox of public corruption: the Moldovan case of dirty hands and collective action

Corruption is an undoubtedly a difficult conceptual area to operate in. This is particularly accurate for the post-Soviet space, where seemingly mutually exclusive forces appear to coexist on regular basis, defying and rejecting rational interpretations. Standard assumptions, definitions and theoretical perspectives often fail to generate useful understandings of corruption in Eastern Europe, habitually obscuring fundamental patterns, hence leaving corruption largely misunderstood. In order to construct anticorruption policies that would be effective in the environment where corruption is systemic, it is critical to resist the temptation of eschewing the complexity of societal factors by over-focusing on the corrupt individual. In an effort to reemphasize the imperative role played by societal variables in explaining corruption in the post-Soviet space, this article uses insights gathered from studying corruption in Republic of Moldova to discuss the role of three fundamental dynamics: “dirty hands,” the problem of “collective action” and the achromatic schema of white-gray-black corruption.     

Health and human rights: challenges of implementation and cultural change

The author identifies the evolution of discourse about human rights to health in medical law, health law and public health law, as well as in major international instruments. He emphasises the importance of General Comment No 14 on Art 12 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. He argues that its breadth but also its specificity in terms of accountable benchmarks and measures of health service provision are likely to frame discourse on "rights to health" in the succeeding years. He identifies the need for translation of the rhetoric in such instruments into meaningful and patient-informed data so that it becomes possible to compare and contrast advances (or otherwise) in rights to health within and among different countries.