The traditional criminal response has been insufficient in the combat against corruption, money laundering and other financial crimes. Billions of dollars continue to be laundered by individuals and criminal organisations through and ever-growing myriad of complex financial schemes. Official Development Assistance (ODA), a fundamental tool of development policy, is equally prone to corruption, embezzlement and abuse — to the extent that up to 30% of disbursements may be siphoned off by corrupt actors and criminal organisations.

Control of corruption in a society is an equilibrium between resources and costs which either empowers or constraints elites predatory behavior. While most research and practice focuses on legal constraints, this paper investigates normative constraints, deemed to be more important, especially civil society and the press. Fresh evidence—both historical and statistical—is found to support Tocqueville’s assertions regarding the importance of collective action and the joint action of media and associations in not only creating a democratic society, but controlling corruption as well.

Although both the problem of corruption and its detrimental effects on society, economy, and environment has widely been recognized, corruption remains one of the most challenging problems of today. In light of globalization, the exclusive focus on compliance-oriented measures such as sharpening laws seems to be more and more ineffective. 

A growing body of research argues that anticorruption efforts often fail because of a flawed theoretical foundation, where collective action theory is said to be a better theoretical lens for understanding corruption than the dominant principal-agent theory. We unpack this critique and advance four new arguments.

The criminal justice system (CJS) is the ballast to a nation’s stability. By enforcing the rule of law, the police, courts and corrections provide citizens with security. However, when the system becomes so riddled with corruption, what was meant to be a protector becomes a predator. In many fragile states, the CJS is just that – another threat to the average citizen and a resource that the wealthy and powerful use to maintain their position.

The Metals Technology Integrity Initiative was formed in early 2013 at a time when the companies were facing an increasingly competitive environment as a result of the decline of the traditional steel producing markets in Europe, and a shift towards emerging markets including the Far East and Indian sub-continent. 

This paper discusses the advantages of Collective Action in addressing corruption risks. It outlines the typical components of an anti-corruption program in an international company and provides an analysis of Collective Action together with how it can be integrated into anti-corruption programs, providing examples and illustrating some of the issues companies must take into account when considering Collective Action approaches.

For almost a century, the Dominican Republic has faced considerable governance and corruption challenges. High levels of corruption were present long time ago, and still prevail today, even if their characteristics and manifestations have changed. Rule of law has been weak for a long time, and generally government effectiveness has not been high. By contrast, the country has performed better in terms of progress on fundamental political and civil liberties, and thus relatively speaking it rates satisfactorily in terms of voice and accountability.

This paper addresses collective action with respect to sporting events, examining an initiative pertaining to the 2014 FIFA World Cup and 2016 Olympic Games in Brazil. It also discusses future prospects for collective action.

This issue of Development Outreach is part of a communications campaign to raise awareness of these issues in the world community. It is being released to coincide with the International Monetary Fund-World Bank Annual Meetings in Singapore in September 2006, which will include good governance and anti-corruption as major themes.