ANTH 212 Lecture 10: ANTH 212- Jan 29
1 May 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
ANTH 212
January 29. 2018
Corruption
• Abuse of one's authority for personal gain
• Some development actors trying to use corrupt practices to understand state behavior as an
actor
• Focus is not only on corrupt practices but the discourses about corruption
• It is viewed as a pragmatic way to achieve development
• In Catherine Labouche’s case study about corruption in India, people get dissatisfied with
development when the development target is not benefitting them
• NGO actors also legitimate these actions by affirming the government is corrupt—they
blame the state for corrupt practices in an effort to step in and
o This is the pragmatic of development which is different from the neoliberal
paradigm where the state is out of the picture. Here, the state is recognized but
corrupt
o This discourse about corruption legitimizes development practices by a group of
NGOs
Criticisms against the corruption perception's index
o Based on the indicator only, we have no knowledge of who is actually giving the
information for the survey?
o It's mostly business actors, not government
o Maybe the index itself is corrupt? :–)
• People giving information might perhaps have vested interests
• Major flaw: It only considers the public sector but has nothing about private sector and
partners’ role in perpetrating corruption by handing large $$ amounts to government
officials
o Is the private sector doing its fair share?
o Promotes stereotypes and clichés that the private sector is more effective
• Creates a division between the public and private sector
• Index produces a disincentive which prevents certain investments or delivery of assistance
to certain countries
o Idea is to prevent corruption but still not helping the poor who might depend on aid in
those areas
o How effective is this index in helping promote development initiatives globally?
• Audit culture
• Term popped up in anthropological theory to gather a sense of new practices of
management
• Has buzz words such as assets, income, liability, revenue, return and investment, value for
money, etc
• Helps management specialists and monitoring groups to be able to calculate how much
money is made from 1$ of investment
• It’s called a new governmentality that has moved government to the margin of governance
o A process by which the principles and technicians of accountancy and financial
management are applied to the governance of people and organizations
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
2018: abuse of one"s authority for personal gain, some development actors trying to use corrupt practices to understand state behavior as an. Corruption actor: focus is not only on corrupt practices but the discourses about corruption. It is viewed as a pragmatic way to achieve development. Here, the state is recognized but corrupt: this discourse about corruption legitimizes development practices by a group of. Is the private sector doing its fair share: promotes stereotypes and clich s that the private sector is more effective, creates a division between the public and private sector. Index produces a disincentive which prevents certain investments or delivery of assistance to certain countries. In article, he provides 3 examples: bribing is a knowledge which is hard to acquire convincing performance, know-how to give and take bribes, to bribe efficiently, you need some know-how, e. g. corruption is a social practice. Also, a populist discourse: elites are corrupt, the poor and the masses = ill-defined categories.
