Digital Commons Network^™

Um Pós-Escrito Do Artigo “Avaliando O Modelo De Governança Das Agências Reguladoras” À Luz Dos Acontecimentos Recentes No Brasil., Lucia Helena Salgado, Eduardo Pedral Fiuza

Lucia Helena Salgado

Procuramos salientar as principais razões pelas quais o tema da qualidade da governança das instituições deve ocupar lugar de destaque nas agendas de políticas públicas. O conceito de governança aqui é o utilizado na literatura de economia da regulação de foco empírico e com viés normativo, que segue a velha tradição da teoria economia de proposição de políticas públicas para a solução de falhas de mercado. “Governança” é uma elipse de expressão mais ampla, significando “normas de governança de boa (ou alta) qualidade”, cujos princípios basilares são transparência, participação social e prestação de contas. a questão de pesquisa, que motiva …

Corruption: Causes And Consequences, Riccardo Pelizzo

riccardo pelizzo

The paper provides an overview of the causes, the consequences and the measures of corruption.

Deferred Corporate Prosecution As Corrupt Regime: The Case For Prison

Lawrence E. Mitchell

Abstract: This paper looks at the growing phenomenon of deferred corporate criminal prosecutions from a new perspective. The literature accepts the practice and is largely concerned with the degree to which efficient and effective criminal deterrence is achieved through pretrial diversion. I examine the practice and conclude that it presents, from a structural perspective, a case of a corrupt law enforcement regime centered in the United States Department of Justice. The regime works in effective –if unintentional-- conspiracy with corporate officials to produce an inefficient enforcement regime that disregards democratic processes and threatens a loss of respect for the rule …

Anti-Corruption Commissions In China:Panacea Or Cure-All Medicine To Fight Corruption, Chan Louis

Chan Louis

With the rapidly economic development and the overall social transformation, corruption has becoming a more prominent threat to China's long-term development. The CPC and Chinese government, while severely cracking down corruption, has proposed a series of strategic thinking to fundamentally solve the problem of corruption. The sharp weapons against corruption in China are generally two institutions, which are Commission for Discipline Inspection responsible for the inspection within the party and the People's Procuratorate, one of key functions of which is prevention and punishment of corruption. A popular saying among Chinese government officials goes: “Fear not the heavens or the earth, …

Preventing Corruption By Eradicating Academic Corruption, Riccardo Pelizzo

riccardo pelizzo

building on a rich empirical literature on academic corruption and its consequences, this note discusses why the eradication of academic corruption may be instrumental in preventing corruption

Globalization And Governance: Impact On Environmental Sustainability In Nigeria’S Niger-Delta Region, Fanan Ujoh Ph.D, Olarewaju Oluseyi Ifatimehin Ph.D

Dr. Fanan Ujoh

With the discovery of oil in commercial quantities in 1958 in the Niger-Delta region came intense oil exploration within the region. Consequently, various Multi-National Oil Companies (MNOCs) commenced oil exploitation in the region. Steadily, cases of pollution, resulting from oil spillages, increased as the quantities of oil production increased over time. Almost 50 years of exploration has resulted in widespread environmental degradation in the form of land, surface and ground water pollution. This has affected the region’s livelihood capacity from farming to fishing, which reflects in endemic and systemic poverty among the communities within the region. This study focuses on …

There Is The Need Of Technical & Entrepreneural Education In Africa To Produce Job Creators And Not Job Seekers, George E. Ekeha

George E Ekeha

Education is the gateway to today's economic drive and therefore the various educational policies in Africa must be tailor made to help achieve the needed economic development. Many African countries are saddle with youth unemployment and these has variously culminated into violence demonstrations against governments across Africa. There are many schools across Africa who trained student as job-seekers and very few are equipped with the entrepreneurial skills and mindset to create employment for themselves and others in their communities. This article looks at the current educational standards in Ghana and its effects on the capabilities of young graduates to impact …

Corruption, Constitutions And Crude In Latin America, Fredrick V. Perry, Scheherazade S. Rehman

Fredrick V. Perry

This paper examines the perception of corruption that exists throughout Latin America, and analyses the importance of the institutional environment in Latin American countries, which are both richly endowed with and dependent on oil and natural gas. First, we look at corruption generally in the region and then carry our analysis by looking at various countries’ GDP per capita versus several indices measuring different dimensions of countries’ economic development, political progress, and social performance. We also combine corruption indices and separate them by typology of corruption in order to investigate the particular facets of corruption that pose the greatest impediment …

The Dangers Of Diversity: Ethnic Fractionalization And The Rule Of Law, Michael Touchton

Michael Touchton

Research linking ethnic cleavages to economic underdevelopment is a hallmark of recent efforts to explain economic growth. Similarly, the rule of law as a credible commitment to property rights and contract enforcement is also identified with economic development. Rather than treating these factors as rival explanations for economic development around the world, I propose the rule of law as the causal mechanism through which ethnic fractionalization (EF) influences growth in many countries. I argue ethnic diversity negatively impacts the rule of law due to the prevalence of ethnically-based patronage networks in developing countries. Public officials, I argue, face greater incentives …

Western Balkans, Organized Crime And The Euro Crisis: Myths And Realities On The Road To Accession, Sotiris Serbos Dr.

Sotiris Serbos Dr.

By placing Western Balkans in the contemporary European economic context shaped by the ongoing debt crisis, the article discusses current strengths and weaknesses of Western Balkan countries towards EU accession. While the achievement of financial adjustment albeit the continuous presence of economic dualism along with the side effects produced by the global crisis are stressed, the article sheds light on the challenges of organized crime and corruption as a major risk factor and a barrier in the event that Europe abandons the completion of Balkan enlargement. With the Europeans unwilling turning the Balkan question into a hard European one the …

Illuminating Corruption Pathways: Modifying The Fcpa’S “Grease Payment” Exception To Galvanize Anti-Corruption Movements In Developing Nations, Ivan Perkins

Ivan Perkins

The Article proposes a new web-based reporting and publication system for “grease” or “facilitating” payments under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (“FCPA”). The FCPA penalizes the bribery of foreign government officials, but contains an exception for facilitating payments, made to expedite “routine governmental actions” such as mail or telephone services. Noting the ambiguities within the exception, many commentators and practitioners have called for its abolition. The Article proposes a different solution: entities making facilitating payments should be required to report these payments to the Department of Justice (“DOJ”). Then, the DOJ would publish this information on a website, with graphics …

The Right To Remain Silent: Addressing A Government Attorney Client Privilege In The Context Of A Grand Jury Subpoena, Matan Shmuel

Matan Shmuel

This article deals with the circuit split over whether a government agency can use government attorneys to conceal what would otherwise become public information. Often, a government agency representative might discuss with nearby agency counsel personal legal information outside the scope of their employment. Courts are split over whether this is privileged or not. My article proposes a solution to the split by implementing a factor test which takes into account the government interest in confidentiality, the public need for disclosure, and the ability of the grand jury to find the information elsewhere.

The Success Of Economic And Financial Crimes Commission In Curbing Corruption And Misappropriation Of Government Funds In Nigeria Has Left A Void For An African Model., Femi Owolade

femi owolade

The issue of economic growth and development in Africa is as much revered as it is maligned and as such is never far away from the headlines. However, economic corruption remains undoubtedly at large. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC)-tasked with tackling corruption and fraud in Nigeria- has been effective in curbing this plight in the most populated country in the continent.Its success in doing so beg the question of why efforts have not been made by the International community to create an African model which will prosecute financial crimes from political and bureaucratic figures.

Comparative Case Studies Of Rent-Seeking In China’S State-Owned Enterprises: The Ministry Of Railway And China Mobile, Wendy Qian

Wendy Qian

The problem of rent-seeking in China’s state-owned enterprises has worsened since the rapid increase in infrastructure investment, such as telecom and railway. State-owned enterprise reform in China has given licensing power to officials and executives without sufficient checks and balances. The Chinese government plans to introduce corporate governance structures and encourage private investment for the previously state-dominated industries, such as the railway industry, in the next decade. Yet these formalities cannot eradicate the political problem of corruption. This thesis will examine rent-seeking through the case studies of China Mobile’s former deputy general manager and Communist Party secretary Zhang Chunjiang’s patronage …

Corruption As Institution Among Small Businesses In Africa, Thomas A. Kelley Iii

Thomas A Kelley III

Suddenly it seems that US-funded international aid programs are all about building rational, predictable institutions to stimulate business in poor countries. The Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), a relatively new and increasingly important US aid organization, and the more venerable United States Agency for International Development (USAID), are initiating programs in poor countries around the world based on the assumption that their future stability and prosperity depends on unleashing and guiding the entrepreneurial spirit of small and medium-sized enterprises, and that this can be accomplished by improving the institutions – most particularly the laws and legal enforcement mechanisms – that regulate …

Is There More Corruption In Larger Countries? Evidence Using Firm-Level Data, Mohammad Amin

Mohammad Amin

Existing studies show that the impact of country size on the level of corruption is sensitive to the dataset used and the sample of countries under study. The present paper contributes to the literature on country size and corruption by using newly available firm-level data on firm’s experience with corruption in 25 countries in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Our results show that the level of corruption rises sharply with country size as measured by the total population of a country. Contrary to claims in the literature, we find no evidence that the corruption and country size relationship is stronger …

Does Country Size Matter? (Short Note), Mohammad Amin

Mohammad Amin

With the exception of trade openness, existing studies have failed to find any significant impact of country size on various social and economic variables. This note uses newly available firm-level and country-level data and shows that country size does matter with small countries performing better than large countries in areas such as trade facilitation, tax administration, burden of tax rates on private firms and corruption. The note also argues that the impact of country size on a variable of interest may not be uniform and it may depend on for example, how large the country is to begin with and …

Fcpa Sanctions: Too Big To Debar?, Dru Stevenson

Dru Stevenson

The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) criminalizes bribery of foreign government officials; enforcement actions against corporations under the FCPA have been increasingly significantly in the last few years. There is an ongoing problem, however, with the sanctions for FCPA violations: enforcement agencies (DOJ and SEC) have limited themselves to fines, civil penalties, and occasional imprisonment of individual violators. Debarment from future federal government contracts, even temporarily, is an unused sanction for FCPA violations, even though Congress provided for this punishment by statute. Debarment would be a far more potent deterrent than fines and penalties, if the government were serious about …

Corruption As Institution In Niger's Business Sector, Thomas A. Kelley Iii

Thomas A Kelley III

Suddenly it seems that US-funded international aid programs are all about building rational, predictable institutions to stimulate business in poor countries. The Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), a relatively new and increasingly important US aid organization, and the more venerable United States Agency for International Development (USAID), are initiating programs in poor countries around the world based on the assumption that their future stability and prosperity depends on unleashing and guiding the entrepreneurial spirit of small and medium-sized enterprises, and that this can be accomplished by improving the institutions – most particularly the laws and legal enforcement mechanisms – that regulate …

Ending Corruption In Africa Through United Nations Inspections, Stuart S. Yeh

Stuart S Yeh

Evidence suggests that a lack of effective checks and balances against corruption undermines the rule of law, the protection of human rights, and economic growth in sub-Saharan Africa. This article suggests the need for an international treaty to establish an African Commission Against Corruption, involving United Nations inspectors to investigate and prosecute corruption. A range of evidence is reviewed suggesting that pressure from constituents as well as international organizations may be effective in compelling African leaders to sign this type of protocol.

“Post-Amnesty Niger Delta And The Promise Of Development: Issues, Prospects And Problems, Omololu Toluwanimi Omololu

Omololu Michael FAGBADEBO

The offer of amnesty to militants in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria was premised on the assumption that it would engender an enabling environment for meaningful development of the area. This paper seeks to project into the problems that may likely jeopardize this assumption. It identifies the windows of opportunity for a lasting peace in the region but expresses doubts about positive change in the character of the Nigerian State. As privatized state, political actors exploit the state to pursue personal and parochial interests rather than implementation of policies aimed at improving the development of the Niger Delta area.

Sarbanes-Oxley & The Culture Of Bribery: Expanding The Territorial Scope Of Private Whistleblower Suits To Overseas Employees, Matt A. Vega

Matt A Vega

SARBANES-OXLEY & THE CULTURE OF BRIBERY: EXPANDING THE TERRITORIAL SCOPE OF PRIVATE WHISTLEBLOWER SUITS TO OVERSEAS EMPLOYEES, by Matt A. Vega

This article has been accepted for publication in Vol. 46, No. 2 Harvard J. on Legis. 425 (Summer 2009).

Abstract: This paper examines the use of private transnational litigation to enforce the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977 (FCPA). Small, but repetitive bribery of foreign officials by local employees is the Achilles heel of corporate ethics. In fact, it is what perpetuates the “culture of bribery” that makes major corruption possible. Unless overseas employees refuse to give in to …

Special Edition Of Journal Of Business Ethics, Patrick Flanagan, Marilynn P. Fleckenstein Ph.D., Patrick D. Primeaux Ph.D., Victoria Shoaf Ph.D., Patricia Werhane Ph.D.

Patrick Flanagan

Niagara Falls, New York was home to the 13th Annual Vincentian International Conference Promoting Business Ethics sponsored by DePaul University (Chicago, IL), Niagara University (Niagara, NY), and St. John’s University (New York, NY), the three American universities sponsored by the Congregation of the Mission (the Vincentians). Conferences in the past had specific themes and corresponding paper presentations focused on a particular topic. This one intentionally did not have a central organizing subject matter to allow for greater diversity. Leaders from the academic and corporate sectors, representing 30 countries, submitted excellent papers on a broad range of ethical issues. This rich …

Chapter 10: Reciprocity, Exchange, Gifts, Contracting, Trust (The Anthropology Of Commutative Justice), Wolfgang Fikentscher

Wolfgang Fikentscher

Inclusive online updates jan10. The anthropology of law borders at the anthropologies of religion and of economics. Interdisciplinary work in these three fields is essential. In the anthropology of economics, this raises the issue whether to approach the overlapping areas from the economic or the anthropological side. This chapter argues in favor of the latter, reporting on (I.). an overview of the mainstream results and ensuing remarks and, (II.) because of their special importance for modern political tasks, the anthropology of the market and of competition, including the anthropologies of giving thanks and corruption. As in all chapters, a bibliography …

Corruption, Governance And Political Instability In Nigeria, Omololu Toluwanimi Omololu

Omololu Michael FAGBADEBO

The Nigerian State is a victim of high-level corruption, bad governance, political instability and a cyclical legitimacy crisis. Consequently, national development is retarded, and the political environment uncertain. The country’s authoritarian leadership faced a legitimacy crisis, political intrigues, in an ethnically - differentiated polity, where ethnic competition for resources drove much of the pervasive corruption and profligacy. While the political gladiators constantly manipulated the people and the political processes to advance their own selfish agenda, the society remained pauperized, and the people wallowed in abject poverty. This invariably led to weak legitimacy, as the citizens lacked faith in their political …

Hack, Mash & Peer: Crowdsourcing Government Transparency, Jerry Brito

Jerry Brito

Hack, Mash & Peer: Crowdsourcing Government Transparency

JERRY BRITO George Mason University - Mercatus Center - Regulatory Studies Program October 21, 2007

Abstract: In order to hold government accountable for its actions, citizens must know what those actions are. To that end, they must insist that government act openly and transparently to the greatest extent possible. In the Twenty- First Century, this entails making its data available online and easy to access. If government data is made available online in useful and flexible formats, citizens will be able to utilize modern Internet tools to shed light on government activities. Such …

The Principal-Agent-Client Model And The Southern African Development Community Anti-Corruption Protocol, Indira M. Carr

Indira M Carr

This article examines the SADC Protocol against the backdrop of the principal-agent-client (PAC) model that drives much of the current anti-corruption measures ranging from legal and civil service reform through to privatisation of the public sector. In focusing on the efforts to fight and prevent corruption through legal and public sector reform this paper highlights the limitations of externally imposed donor driven solutions. Using Tanzania, a country that has seen extensive technical input from donor agencies in reforming the law and bureaucratic structures, as an illustration, this article argues that the limited success of such donor driven anti-corruption strategies are …

Through A Glass Darkly’: Assessing The ‘New’ War Against Corruption In Nigeria, Shola J. Omotola

Shola J. Omotola Mr

It is no longer news that corruption is endemic in Nigeria. Neither is it news that the ‘democratic’ government of President Obasanjo is waging an unprecedented war against corruption. What is, however, controversial is the extent to which the ‘new’ war has succeeded in addressing this scourge. This article engages this crucial question and submits that while the legal and institutional anchorages of the war offer a good point of departure, they remain grossly inadequate. This largely explains why the war has been underproductive and caught in a deepening crisis of legitimacy. What is required is the nourishing and re-envisioning …

Free And Fair Elections, Riccardo Pelizzo

riccardo pelizzo

This chapter argues that the freedom and the fairness of elections are threatened by old and new (and emerging) threats. In fact, the freedom and the fairness of elections are threatened not only by political violence, intimidation and electoral fraud which can be regarded as the ‘old’ or ‘traditional’ threats, but they are also threatened by the absence of plural sources of independent information, conflict of interests and , above all, corruption

Bribery In Commerce - New Zealand, Frank X. Quin Mr

Frank X Quin

New Zealand's criminal law on bribery dates back nearly 100 years with virtually no attention to revision or reform over that period, reflecting (perhaps) the country's relatively corruption-free status. Yet there remains ambiguity on just what comes within the ambit of the criminal offences and, especially, what is meant by "corruptly".