Business Commons^™

Democracy And Corruption: A Complex Relationship, Shrabani Saha, Rukmani Gounder, Neil Campbell, J Su

Neil Campbell

We argue that an 'electoral democracy' is not sufficient to reduce corruption. Our contention is that the institutions associated with mature democracy are crucial to successfully deterring corrupt behaviour. At the core of our argument is the idea that with well-functioning institutions, the probability of detection and punishment is sufficiently high to deter most decision makers from choosing to act corruptly. The empirical evidence we present supports this idea. The nonlinearity of democracy variables is tested to confirm that an advanced stage of democracy is crucial for combating corruption.

Corruption, Democracy And Asia-Pacific Countries, Neil Campbell, Shrabani Saha

Neil Campbell

This paper argues that the relationship between democracy and corruption is nonmonotonic. When a country shifts from autocratic rule to highly imperfect democracy (an ‘electoral democracy’) it is frequently perceived that the level of corruption increases. Conversely, when the democracy level is already relatively high (approaching ‘mature democracy’) an increase in the level of democracy is typically expected to decrease the level of corruption. To assist with our discussion of these issues, before going on to the empirical part of the paper, we look specifically at the case of South Korea to illustrate how corruption responded to an increasing level …

Education By Corporation: The Merits And Perils Of For-Profit Higher Education For A Democratic Citizenry, Amy Sepinwall

Amy J. Sepinwall

For-profit colleges have elicited wildly divergent reactions, with critics vilifying them and their executives, and supporters seeing in the institutions a necessary and laudable complement to public and non-profit institutions. As I propose to argue in this chapter, the truth likely likes somewhere between these extremes.

Commentary on for-profit education proceeds along three narratives: the first views the for-profit college as a kind of villainous, unstoppable monster; the second, contrastingly, sees the for-profit college as a kind of savior; and the third takes a more nuanced position, identifying virtues of for-profit education while expressing concern about its compatibility with education’s …