Description
Book SynopsisWhy do ordinary people engage in corruption? In Corruption as a Last Resort, Kelly M. McMann contends that bureaucrats, poverty, and culture do not force individuals in Central Asia to pay bribes, use connections, or sell political support. Rather, corruption is a last resort when relatives, groups in society, the market, and formal government programs cannot provide essential goods and services. Using evidence from her long-term research in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, McMann shows that Islamic institutions, secular charities, entrepreneurs, and banks cannot provide the jobs and credit people need. This drives individuals to illicitly seek employment and loans from government officials.
A leading cause of this resource scarcity is market reform, as demonstrated by McMann's analysis of these countries as well as of Uzbekistan and global data. Market reform without supporting institutions, such as credit registries and antimonopoly measures, limits the resources available
Trade Review
The work is overall a most welcome addition to the literature on corruption in post-communist states, while its underlying and original focus on corruptors rather than corrupt officials provides important new perspectives on corruption in general.
-- Leslie Holmes * Slavic Review *
This innovative theory invests in a new 'corruption from below' perspective—that considers ordinarypeople instead of elites—offering new argumentations that criticise a mere/immediate ‘market’ concept.... McMann has produced a fundamental book that will surely contribute to the research in anti-corruption studies creating a consistent basis for further research.
-- Riccardo Mario Cucciolla * Europe-Asia Studies *
Table of Contents1. An Absence of Alternatives: A New Framework for Understanding Corruption2. Alternatives to Corruption and the Effect of Market Reform: The Arguments and Their Theoretical Implications3. Bribery, Favoritism, and Clientelism: Evidence from Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan4. Market Actors as an Unrealized Alternative: The Effect of Market Reforms5. Islamic Institutions and Secular Charities: Obstacles to Providing Substitute Resources6. Families: The Uneven Effect of Market Reforms7. Reducing Corruption: Policy RecommendationsAppendix: Statistical Analysis
Index
