The Impact of State-society relations on Anticorruption Agencies in Southern Africa
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Date
2019
Authors
Toeba, Thato
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
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Abstract
Corruption remains a fundamental and intricate issue in public administration to date.
It is featured constantly as one of the foremost discontents that societies around the
globe have with the administration of public service and the resulting socio-economic
problems.1 While anti-corruption law is extensively adopted in Southern Africa, the
implementation of law has encountered deficiencies and challenges in tackling,
especially grand corruption. This paper focuses on Anti-Corruption Agencies (ACAs)
and their efficacy in controlling corruption in Southern Africa. It argues that the
inability of ACAs to arrest corruption in Southern Africa is embedded inter-alia in the
precarious state-society relations in the region which perpetuate the ambiguity for
corruption and impede the formation of a moral consensus on anti-corruption law. The
state, which is regarded generally as a trustworthy custodian of social progress is viewed
by most domestic constituents as apathetic to social welfare with its political ambitions
as anti-ethical to those of citizens. The paper proposes the analytical framework of
Context, Resonance & Relevance (CRR) to assess the compatibility of Anti-Corruption
Agencies (ACAs) in Southern Africa with domestic institutional contexts. In this model,
context assesses ACA framework in relation to the domestic political environment
and the extent to which it allows ACAs the capacity to function efficiently amidst
competing political priorities. Resonance is concerned with the political relationship
between the domestic society and the ACA and whether the operating framework
sufficiently engages cultural codes specific in said society which De Sardan argues
"banalise" or "justify" corruption. Relevance engages typologies of corruption in the
region and whether reforms sufficiently are targeted at specific problems.
Description
Keywords
state-society relations, Anti-Corruption Agencies, corruption, Southern Africa, anti-corruption law, article
Citation
Toeba T. The Impact of State-society relations on Anticorruption Agencies in Southern Africa / Thato Toeba // Kyiv-Mohyla Law and Politics Journal. - 2019. - No. 5. - P. 165-192.