Bo Rothstein: Controlling Corruption - The Social Contract Approach
Bo Rothstein, professor at the University of Gothenburg, gave a short lecture on Controlling Corruption: The Social Contract Approach. The presentation builds on Rothstein's new book by the same name.
Main content
This book presents a radically new approach to how societies can get corruption under control. Since the late 1990s, the detrimental effects of corruption on human wellbeing have become well established in research. This has resulted in a stark increase in anti-corruption programs launched by international and national development organizations. Despite these efforts, evaluations of the effects of these anti-corruption programs have been disappointing. As it can be measured, it is difficult to find substantial effects from such anti-corruption programs. The argument in this book is that this huge policy failure can be explained by three factors. Firstly, that the corruption problem has been poorly conceptualized since what should count as the opposite to corruption鈥攖he quality of government鈥攈as been left out. Secondly, that the problem has been located in the wrong social spaces. It is neither a cultural nor a legal problem. Instead, it is for the most part located in what organization theory defines as the 鈥渟tandard operating procedures鈥� in social organizations. Thirdly, that the general theory that has dominated anti-corruption efforts鈥攖he principal-agent theory鈥攊s based on serious misspecification of the basic nature of the problem. The book presents a reconceptualization of corruption and a new theory鈥攄rawing on the tradition of the social contract鈥攖o explain it and motivate policies of how to get corruption under control. Several empirical cases serve to underpin this new theory ranging from the historical organization of religious practices to specific social policies, universal education, gender equality, and auditing.
Bo Rothstein holds the August R枚hss Chair in Political Science at University of Gothenburg. His听research touches on many different areas, including the quality of political institutions, welfare policy, social trust, corruption, poverty reduction, labor market policy and interest groups.
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The CORE Lecture Series is organised by the听听research group (Citizens, Opinion, Representation, and Elections)听at the Department of Comparative Politics. Leading international scholars are invited to present their ongoing research on a broad range of topical issues for the research group.
The seminars are funded by the SAMEVAL grant awarded by the Norwegian Research Council.