Corrupt Cities: A Practical Guide to Cure and Prevention

by Robert Klitgaard

The movement toward decentralization, accountability, and democratic forms of government at the local level is gathering momentum and the enormous costs of corruption are being explicitly recognized. Corruption is an entrenched symptom of misgovernance often reflected in patronage, red tape, ineffective revenue-generating agencies, large-scale bribery in procurement, and failure to deliver services to city dwellers. But when local officials are accountable to their citizens, decisionmaking can become participatory. In turn, a participatory process can be the cornerstone of a strategy to reform 'sick' institutions and improve the welfare of city dwellers. 'Corrupt Cities' is an important contribution to this emerging field, addressing the historical, traditional, and cultural contexts that create perverse incentives for corruption to exist. At the same time, this book provides practical solutions and a set of incentives charting a path away from misgovernance toward effective local governance. The authors present case studies of both success and failure to underscore that addressing corruption is only an entry point to deeper public-sector reforms. The book serves as a guide for local reformers and citizen groups intent on changing corrupt systems by introducing practical strategies to combat corruption and to reform local institutions. Practical tools and approaches are presented, including fiscal transfers, systems to track public revenues and expenditures, simplified rules to improve the procurement process, diagnostics, and participatory techniques for developing and monitoring local budgets.

Genres: Economics, Politics

176 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 1999

Reviews

[Aayush Raj · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Corruption is an economic crime of calculation. If the probability of being caught is small and the penalty is mild and the pay-off is large relative to the positive incentives facing the government official, then we will tend to find corruption."

The book is handy as also simply written. The book is actually a practical guide and can be used by anyone trying to fight the menace of corruption.

[Nara · Rating 4 out of 5]

The authors discuss the definition of corruption as well as the shaping of anti-corruption policy, and they apply strategies with actual case studies such as Hong Kong and La Paz. The book focuses on the prevention measures through promoting practical strategies of how to cope with systematic corruption. In addition, it includes relevant evidence of why efforts to fight corruption are not always successful. Klitgaard, MacLean-Abaroa, and Parris (2000) argues that “many anti-corruption efforts fail because they take an exclusively legalistic approach or rely on appeals to morality”, and this statement is proved by detailed description of the anti-corruption reforms, which has been led by city mayor MacLean-Abaroa in the 1980s and the assessment of these reforms in 1996.